Fish Tacos - The Low Sodium Way

My cousin Liz (Jill, at the time) posted her fish taco recipe a few (like six!!) years ago.  It has been a favorite in our house ever since.  Rory wanted to have them the other night so I set about making them low sodium.  It wasn't difficult.  The high sodium portions are the tortillas and the mayo but I made both of those from scratch so no problem!

I'll list the ingredients in bold in the actual recipe ... There's a few steps but they are easy and I'll put them in the order I recommend ...

Put rice in rice cooker (or cook on stovetop)  I do two cups of rice. 

In a bowl, mix ¼ cup lime juice, 1 TBLS water, 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp chili powder.  This is your marinade.  Cut flakey white fish (I do two fillets for our family of four) (and I use Snapper) into into taco-sized pieces, about 1 ½” x 2 ½” (thin pieces work best).  Add to marinade and let stand.

Mix ½ cup homemade mayo,  ¼ cup cream, 1 clove garlic, and pepper to taste. You can add 1-2 Serrano chilies, seeded too if you want, but I don't.  Liz blends all this in her blender but I don't mind it chunky so I just mix it with a spoon.  Pop it in the fridge until you are ready to serve. 

I made the dough for the tortillas in the Thermomix but you could mix it by hand.  370g flour, 180ml lukewarm water, 40g olive oil, 1 tsp sodium free baking powder.  Add to TM bowl, blitz speed 5 for 10 seconds.  Knead setting for 2 minutes.  Tip dough out, roll into big ball then divide into 8 equal portions.  Roll with rolling pin and set aside.  Fry in hot, dry (no oil) flying pan for 1-2 minutes or until it bubbles, then flip.  The second side never takes as long.  AND the first tortilla never works!  (Roll out a tiny one to be 'first one' that goes in the trash!)

In shallow bowl, mix 1/2 cup flour, 1 tsp sodium free baking powder and 1 tsp chili powder. Add water until a thick batter forms.

When your rice is finished cooking, mix in the juice of one lime and a handful of fresh coriander.

You can decide whether to cook the fish or tortillas first.  I had help ... Rory cooked the fish while I cooked the tortillas.  If I had to do it on my own, I would have cooked the tortillas first.

Fry tortillas in a preheated (on medium low heat), dry (no oil) flying pan for 1-2 minutes or until it forms bubbles, then flip.  The second side never takes as long.  AND the first tortilla never works!  I always make a tiny one to be 'first one' that goes in the trash.  Place tortilla's in a stack under a clean tea towel until ready to serve.

Grab your marinated fish.  Dredge each pieces in flour then coat liberally with batter and shallow fry (you can deep fry but I never do!) until golden. (It is okay if your fish does not get completely opaque, if your pieces are thin enough, the lime juice will have already cooked them) Drain on a paper towel.

To serve ... top tortilla with rice, fish and sauce.  I often sprinkle with extra coriander.  And Rory adds Sriracha to his.

Funky Lime Pizza

I originally posted this funky lime pizza here. I have refined it a fair bit so am reposting with the refined directions ...

pizza dough enough to make two pizzas

4 cloves garlic, minced ~ I do a whole lot more but you do what you like !!

2 T extra-virgin olive oil

2 ears of corn, kernels removed

pinch of black pepper

2 cups Mozzarella, shredded

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

zucchini, thinly sliced

feta cheese, crumbled

fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves, coarsely chopped

juice of 2 or 3 limes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F/ 200 C if using oven.  (We do ours in our outside pizza oven ... and have even done it in the weber ... just cook it however you would normally cook pizza)

Use your favorite dough, roll out two bases.

Drizzle olive oil on both bases, spread around with a spoon.  Sprinkle with black pepper.  Top with zucchini, onion, corn and feta.  Top with mozzarella.

Bake for about 8 minutes then swap which rack the pizzas are on. Bake for another 5 - 8 minutes, til cheese is done to your liking ! I like it a bit brown ...

While the pizzas are cooking, heat the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, til light brown ... DON'T BURN IT !! Burned garlic is bitter and narsty ! (that's for you Jimmy !)

Immediately after removing the pizza from the oven, top with garlic, squeeze a lime over the top and cover with the cilantro.

I serve with additional lime and we sqeeze more lime over during the meal !!

PS ... I googled funky lime pizza today and my original post came up FIRST ! How fun is that ? It also brought up another couple people who have reposted the recipe. One I knew about. One I didn't. Again ... FUN !!!

Homemade Wheat Buns

These can be made in a bread machine, or with a mixer or even by hand!
(I made them in my bread machine until I received a Kitchenaid from my husband for my birthday recently!)
If making with a breach machine add all ingredients except yeast. Add the yeast last, in a well made in the flour. Select 'Dough Cycle.'

1 1/3 cup warm water
¼ cup Sugar (scant)
2 ¼ teaspoon bread machine yeast
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour

Preheat oven to warm and then turn off.
Place water yeast and sugar in mixing bowl.
Allow to sit about 5 minutes, until foamy.
Add oil, salt, and flour and allow mixer to knead for 10 minutes.
Remove dough onto floured surface and knead into a tidy ball.
Put ball of dough back into mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap or tea towel, and place in warm oven with bowl of warm water placed on bottom rack.
Allow to rise until doubled in size.
(When dough cycle on the bread machine is complete continue as follows.)
Roll on floured surface, into long log, and cut into 9 pieces.
Place on parchment lined baking sheet and flatten dough pieces until they are the thickness of a pancake and sides are almost touching.
Cover sheet with cloth and put in warm oven for 45 to 60 minutes or until doubled in size.
Remove from oven.
Preheat Oven to 375 degrees.
Bake for 17 minutes.

Printable Recipe:

Homemade Wheat Buns

Pizza Dough

The long awaited pizza dough recipe!
After recieving my Kitchenaid mixer for my birthday, I had to rework the recipe a bit.
I've included both a mixer method and hand mixing method in this recipe.

This dough makes enough for two pizzas.

You can freeze the dough for another day.

If you freeze it, thaw it in the refrigerator overnight, or on the counter for 1 ½ hours.

Dough is easier to roll out at room temperature.

1 ½ cups warm water (105-115°F)

1 teaspoon sugar

2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups bread flour

2 teaspoons salt

*½  - 1 cup of all-purpose flour

·   Combine warm water and sugar in mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Stir in olive oil

·   In a medium bowl, mix together the 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour and 1 ½ cups bread flour with the salt.

·   Turn mixer, attached with dough hook, on to lowest setting and slowly add flour and salt mixture. Raise speed after most of the flour is combined. Mix until dough forms into a ball *adding the remaining ½ cup – 1 cup of flour if necessary so that dough no longer appears sticky, and is easily handled.

·   Turn dough onto floured surface and knead briefly until smooth and elastic, sprinkling with flour until no longer sticky.

·   Spray a large bowl with nonstick spray; place dough in bowl. Cover lightly with plastic wrap or a tea towel. Let rise in a warm spot until double in size. About 1 hour.

    (Tip: Turn oven on, set to ‘warm,’ for about 5 minutes and then shut it off. On the lower rack place a large bowl filled with the hottest water you can get out of the tap. Place the bowl of covered dough on the upper rack, close oven and allow the dough to rise in this warm moist spot.)

·   Punch down dough and cut in half. Roll out and place on pizza pans/stones lined with baking paper. You can also refrigerate or freeze in floured Ziploc freezer bags.

If Mixing by Hand: Combine water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Set aside until foamy. Stir in oil, flour and salt until the dough starts to gather around the spoon. (You may find that you will use less flour with this method.) Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface; knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Spread onto pizza pans lined with baking paper.

Click image for printable recipe:

40 Clove Garlic Chicken Pizza

We had leftover 40 clove chicken the other night and I decided to try a little experiment. Seriously ... I think that's pretty much all I do these days ... experiment ! I wanted to try and change up the dough a bit. Last time I made it, I found it a bit hard to roll out and I had read that adding a small amount of gluten flour will help with elasticity. So ... I made my dough like this ....

1 and 1/3 cup water
2 TBLS honey
2 TBLS olive oil
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups whole wheat spelt flour
1 TBLS gluten flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 and 1/4 tsp yeast

This dough was really nice. It is much wetter and required more flour on the surface to roll but the taste was great ! I think I'll try adding half as much gluten flour next time and see what that does. I'll tweak it til it's perfect !! :)

Here's the pizza before we put the mozzarella on top ...

The toppings went like this :

Tomato Sauce:
2 TBLS tomato paste
1 TBLS thickened cream
Leftover garlic and onions from the 40 clove garlic chicken

Mix and spread on dough.

The Rest of It:
One small potato, unpeeled, uncooked and thinly sliced
Leftover 40 clove garlic chicken, maybe we used about 1/2 a cup ? Do it to your liking.
A handful of fresh baby spinach leaves
A dozen or so kalamata style olives
Three homemade sun dried tomatoes, defrosted earlier and cut into chunks
Red onion, sliced
Spring onion, chopped
Camembert cheese, slivered

And then top with mozarella cheese. Bake in oven 15/20 minutes on 400F/200C.

ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS !!

Donna's Buttermilk Biscuits {but} Whole Wheat

My friend Donna gave me my first ever biscuit recipe a few years ago. I used to make them quite often. I've been trying to find a good whole wheat dinner bread roll but I'm just not keen on kneading and rising time and all that ... I need quicker and less effort for the life we lead ! I am so glad I decided to give this recipe a bit of a tweak to fit in with our whole unprocessed journey because these biscuits are the answer to my dinner roll dilemma !! They are quick, easy and most of all TASTY !!!

Here's my modified recipe ...

If you want to use white flour, just use 2 cups flour.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 TBLS gluten flour - put it into a one cup measure and then fill the cup the rest of the way with whole wheat spelt flour. Does that make sense ? (If you eat gluten free, maybe try the whole 2 cups with the whole wheat spelt flour !)
1 TBLS baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients. Cut in the butter. Do you know how to cut butter in ? I will have to show you another 'favorite gadget' next time I make these. I never knew how to cut in butter ... nor did I know about this gadget til I made these the first time. So ... you cut in the butter til the butter is pea size. Then add the buttermilk. Put it onto a floured surface. I sort of push it down to 1/2 inch thickness and then use my biscuit cutters (also had to buy those to make these the first time !!) and put the cut biscuits onto baking sheet (I line mine with baking paper). Bake in 400F/200C oven for about 15/20 minutes ... depending on your oven. Mine seems to run hot so I check them after 10 minutes, they usually take 15 but I always check because burned biscuits are not so nice. I just break one in half and make sure they are not wet in the center ... that's my best way to tell you how to check !

{my bread maker pizza dough recipe}

200ml water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 & 1/2 cups bread flour
1 & 3/4 teaspoons yeast

put into bread maker. select 'pizza dough'. press start button.

takes 45 minutes ...