Fit Fare

Several weeks ago, when I reviewed Grub, a cookbook/sustainable urban food guide by Anna Lapp and Bryant Terry, I didn’t spend much time reviewing the cookbook section of the book. That is because I hadn’t quite gotten around to trying the recipes. The main reason for this had a bit to do with the layout.

 

Typically, the cookbooks I use have their recipes divided into categories by type or main ingredient. Terry sets up his cookbook as a list of menus, with two to three menus per season. I find that to be a bit restricting, since I prefer to browse through and find my own combinations of recipes for a dinner. Another reason that I was slow to try the recipes was that the menus had more of a festive dinner party (or barbecue with friends) feel to them, and not a quick weekday family dinner. But I felt that the best way to review this book was to prepare one of the pre-determined menus, and since I could feel that we were on the tail end of our summer here in Northern California (which does tend to happen a bit later than other places), I selected a lovely fish taco menu. 

 

The recipes were quite easy to follow and the dinner turned out deliciously. First, I made a spicy guacamole that was lovely, but not too different than any I’ve made in the past. Next, a cherry tomato rosemary salsa that was delicious and the rosemary made it stand out from most salsa I’ve ever made. I think in the future, I’d add even more rosemary than the recipe calls for, because I found that it was a bit too mild and the flavour was eventually lost when the ingredients were mixed into the tacos.


Next, I prepared the fish for the tacos: catfish cut into smallish strips, massaged with paprika and salt and then saut饤 with olive oil. I grated some pepper jack and chopped some cilantro for the tacos, then heated up some tortillas in a steamer. 

The real discoveries in this meal were the spicy corn on the cob and the black beans. The corn on the cob was boiled and then tossed with a combination of melted butter and green tabasco. This was much tastier than I expected it to be, given my ambivalence towards tobasco. As for the black beans, I often make them when I have fish tacos and the recipe I normally use is a lot simpler than this one, but I believe the extra work put into this recipe was well worth it. The recipe calls for both red and yellow onions, chopped, as well as some chopped garlic. These are saut饤 for a while, until the onions soften and become translucent. Then, I added oregano and cumin, and the soaked black beans, and cooked them for about 20 minutes. The aroma that filled this kitchen at this point was intoxicating and drew my friends in to check in on the status of the meal.

 

On the whole, the meal was delicious. My overall sense of the cookbook section of this book is that it isn’t really geared towards the very experienced cook, but rather to inspire the younger novice cook. Everything about the menus is geared towards making the reader think about cooking as a pleasurable multi-sensory experience and not merely a way to obtain fuel.