On the Yahara A-Z

S.

Sole Baja Tacos and Spinach Focaccia Turkey from the test kitchen at Riverside Drive.  Baja tacos are a fun way to use white fish instead of beef for the standard weeknight meal.  I've tried many

recipes for fish tacos over the year and most of the components remain the same -- a nice thin easy to cook white fish, usually cabbage, some diced tomatoes, maybe a hint of lime and some sort of sauce if desired.  The choice of white fish always seems to vary, depending on what is available in the meat counter and what looks vibrantly white on ice.  Cod, haddock, rockfish, halibut, even perch I have tried in the past, with varying degrees of success, mostly depending on how well the fish takes

seasoning and whether or not it has aged well frozen or over ice.  This last batch I tried sole for the first time, very thin stripped filets found in Madison's Festival store. At a medium to low heat, the filets took little more than seven minutes per side and seasoned with a lemon pepper spice, the sole held its shape well, browned well without sticking, and its inherent taste didn't conflict with the spice, making it a very successful meat to simple spatula right from the pan onto the soft shell taco.  Although this time I chose a small green cabbage to chop as the main compliment in the taco, I've had better luck with either red cabbage, or a sort of 2-1 ration red to green cabbage, dripped with lime and a pinch of salt, previously; this head was small and ended up far too chewy and dominated the fragile fish underneath.  I added black beans, hydroponic tomatoes and a few large drops of avocado ranch for the sauce.  Wrap these up, bite in, and it is still the great fish that comes through as the strongest flavor.

Test kitchen also revealed this past week that focaccia bread freshly baked from Festival is the most flavorful bread we've yet used for our sandwich and panini experiments ongoing for years now.  We have tried recipes for muffalettas and many other varieties of paninis over the years with great

success with country breads, ryes, and even homemade thick cut whites or wheats.  But the spinach feta focaccia bread, think, sour-tangy from the cheese, and seasoned over the top, is a great place to put thin sliced hogshead turkey, a backyard tomato slice and a slathering of pesto mayo concoction.  No need for the panini iron -- this bread is to moist to try to ruin by drying out with a browning.