Kicking off the MOM series

I am kicking off the new magazine of the month (MOM) series today. If you read my post from Saturday I shared some of my goals for Kitchen Concoctions for the year 2011. One thing I shared was that I was going to change my cookbook of the month series to feature food magazines. I decided to make this change because I have had many a magazine subscription over the years and I always go through and cut out the recipes I want to try before I throw the issue away. I then file the clipped recipe away into my trusty blue binder which is dived by category. Making my slightly OCD self happy because I can easily flip through this binder when I am looking for a particular recipe. Problem is, although I am good about updating my binder I don't actually use the binder to cook from as frequently as I would like. THAT is why I will be featuring magazines this year for the cookbook of the month series, so I can actually use all these recipes I have so carefully filed away!

So this is what I have planned. Each month (hopefully the second or third week of the month) I will feature 5 recipes (one for each day of the work week) from that month's selected magazine. They may be recipes from past or present editions of the magazine. Then on the Saturday of the MOM week I will highlight each recipe I shared and do the general 'review' of the magazine and give you a head's up as to what next month's magazine will be! Sound good? Good?

This month's magazine is Food and Wine, which is the first food magazine ever picked up and had a subscription to. I have been subscribing to it for years and have an overwhelmingly large amount of recipes from Food and Wine saved in my blue binder. So this was a natural choice for the first magazine I chose to highlight.

And the first recipe I tried were these Crispy Fish Tacos. We love taco night around here and fish tacos are a nice change from the usual beef or chicken. These were so tasty and if you are on the fence about the sauce... make it! The hoisin sauce totally makes these tacos!

Notes: The original recipe said to fry the fish once breaded, however since I am trying to cook a little bit healthier and since panko is so crispy I baked these and they baked up perfectly. Also I did slightly adjust the seasonings and taco 'fillers' as well.

One Year Ago: Why-the-Chicken-Crossed-the-Road Santa Fe Tortilla Soup

Crispy Fish Tacos

Printable Version

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 12 minutes Serves: 6 (2 tacos each)

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon fish seasoning

1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 pound tilapia fillets, cut into 4-by-1-inch strips

2 large eggs, beaten

3 cups panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

12 corn tortillas, warmed

Topping:

lettuce leaves, shredded

carrots shredded,

scallions, slciced
tomatoes, diced

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, whisk the mayonnaise with the hoisin sauce and lemon juice.

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, fish seasoning, salt and black pepper. Seal the bag and shake. Add the fish and shake to coat.

Put the eggs and panko in separate shallow bowls. Dip the fish in the egg and then in the panko. Transfer the fish to a baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated 350 degree oven for 12 minutes until cooked through.

Serve the cooked fish in the tortillas, with the hoisin mayonnaise, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and scallions.

adapted from Food and Wine, May 2010