mamasewingcircus.com

A friend of mine asked me to post my weekly menu so that he could benefit from my planning or he’d know when to invite himself over for dinner. For him, here’s this week’s menu:
Monday: Grilled red snapper fish tacos
Tuesday: Heirloom tomato tart and salad
Wednesday: Chiles rellenos and black beans
Thursday: Tortilla soup (the cheater way)
Friday: Calzones

The recipes:
Grilled red snapper fish tacos –
1. Prepare the grill.
2. Grill 1/2 ear of corn per eater and 1/2 lb of red snapper. (We prepare ours by sprinkling with Montreal Steak Seasoning)
3. Chop cilantro, tomatoes, an avocado, 1/2 lime per taco, jalapeno/habanero. Grate cheese.
4. Heat corn tortillas.
5. eat.

Tomato tart –
Mine is based on Martha Stewart’s, but we use whatever cheese we have on hand and the mediterranean pie crust from Martha Rose Shulman’s “Best Vegetarian Recipes”. Martha Stewart’s recipe uses a pate brisee, roasted garlic and farmers cheese. The gyst – make your pie crust and par bake. Roast garlic in the microwave for 1 minute. Slice your tomatoes and cheese. Let the par baked crust cool slightly, then smush the roasted garlic across it – I like to use a full head so that we have a nice paste across the whole tart. Layer cheese and tomatoes. You can add ribbons of basil. Drizzle with olive oil and then bake at 350 for 20-30minutes – until the exposed crust has browned, the cheese has melted and the tomatoes have brown edges.

Chiles Rellenos –
1. Prepare 1 reasonably flat pasilla pepper per person by placing over an open flame until the skin has completely charred off. Cut off the tops and remove the seeds.
2. Grate or slice monterrey jack cheese to fill each pepper – amount varies based on size of peppers. Fill your peppers
3. Whisk an egg with 2 tbs milk, prepare a plate of 1/4c cornmeal mixed with 1 tsp salt, pepper to taste, and 1/2 flour.
4. Dip each pepper in egg then flour. Attempt to cover all sides. Let the covered pepper sit for a few minutes, then repeat the process twice or until your peppers are completely covered in batter.
5. Warm 1/4 c of olive oil in a pan until it smokes. Prepare either 3 layers of paper bags on the surface next to this or 4 layers of paper towels on a plate.
6. Set each pepper in the oil, careful of the battered coating. Fry until the batter has browned. Flip to brown on both sides.
7. Remove the cooked pepper and place it on the paper bag/paper towels to drain.
We then coat ours in Herdez tomatillo salsa.

Calzones –
Ours are simply a basic pizza dough recipe stuffed with a mixture of 1 egg, 1c ricotta, 8 oz mozzarella, roasted garlic, broccoli, spinach, and occasionally 1 80z can of diced tomatoes or fresh cherry tomatoes.