Seafood Tacos, Cashew Crema, Mulberry Tart, Chilled Romaine Soup

Mother's Day Taco Fiesta
By request, this year's Mother's Day Luncheon featured one of our favorite meals -- fish and shrimp tacos with all the fixings...   

The fish of choice this time was cod, although we also like mahi mahi and grouper for tacos. I cut the slab of cod into 'fingers' and dredged them in beaten, spiced egg, then in cornmeal before pan-frying.  The shrimp were 'barbecued' Cajun style -- sauted in a splash of oil spiced with Cajun seasoning, until they just turn pink (don't cook them into rubber bands!).

Fixings included sliced avocado, shredded cheese, diced onion and tomato, salsa roja, wedges of lime to squeeze, and home-made cashew crema (see below) instead of sour cream.  

We're not big around here on filling up tacos with a fist full of shredded lettuce.  K.I.S.S.

Cashew Crema
Are you lactose intolerant or know someone who is?  Don't like all the calories in sour cream?  Or just like something tasty and different?  Cashew Crema, a.k.a.  Cashew Sour Cream is a great recipe!  You'll find a hundred uses for it.

1 cup raw, unsalted Cashews
1/2 cup water
1 Lemon, juiced

Put the kettle on and boil up a quart of water.  Pour the water over the cashews and let them soak for an hour.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the soak water,  then drain the cashews.

Put the cashews and half the water in your food processor along with the lemon juice and take it for a loooong spin in the food processor -- 6-10 minutes minimum -- to get rid of any graininess.  As it spins, add more water, a tablespoon at a time, to get the consistency you want. 

If you put a Tbsp or so of sugar in this instead of the lemon juice, you'll end up with something close to English Double Cream...

A good trick to remember is that if the crema is still too thin, you can stir in a tablespoon or more of almond flour to tighten it up. 

Mulberry Tart 
Nice lady down the street asked if we wanted to "pick our own" mulberries from the tree in her front yard.  Heck yes!!  It's been dog's years since I messed (the operative word) with mulberries.  Much messier to pick and process than blackberries, or almost anything else I can think of.  Mother's Day was imminent so I decided a Mulberry Tart was just the thing for our Mother's Day luncheon dessert.

Crust
2-1/2 cups AP Flour
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 cup cold Butter
2 Egg Yolks (I added the whites to our breakfast omelets)
1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
Water... as needed

Mix the flour and sugar.  Cut in the butter until you get "pea-sized" lumps; personally I like it finer than that.   Add the egg yolks and vanilla and mix with your fingers until it starts to come together.  Dump onto a floured workbench and knead into a ball, adding a TBSP or two of water to make a stiff dough.  Divide the dough -- 3/4 and 1/4 if you want a lattice top, or half and half like I did to make a 7" tart and a 9" tart.  Wrap the divided dough in clingflim and chill for 30-45 minutes.

This makes a great tasting crust, but a bit too flakey for a stand-alone tart.  In the photo above you can see where some of the crust broke away as I removed the tart pan rim.

Filling
10 cups Mulberries -- don't worry about the stems, you'll go crazy trying to remove them!
1 cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Butter
1/4 cup AP Flour or Wondratm for thickener
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tsp fresh ground Cardamon seed
1 tsp fresh ground Black Pepper

While the crust chills. wash the berries  and place in a large pot with the sugar, butter and vanilla. 

 Simmer for 20-30 minutes unclovered,  then sieve-in the flour or Wondra and cook a few more minutes to thicken.  Remove from the heat, add the cardamon and pepper and let it cool before filling the crust(s).  The cardamon and pepper help the flavor of the berries 'pop' and the result is not just an over sweet mono-flavor!

Baking
Bake the filled crusts for 30-45 minutes @350F until the crust is GB&D -- Golden Brown and delicious.    Serve warm with a dollop of cream, crema, or vanilla ice cream.

Chilled Romaine Soup
Here's a blast from the past!  I first made this in 2017 after we'd been to Central Florida around Lake Wales, and seen the Chalet Suzanne restaurant where this recipe was made famous and featured in the 1961 edition of the New York Times Cookbook.

Quite simple, and suprizingly tasty.

2 Tbsp Butter
1 large Onion, diced  or a smaller onion and some diced shallot is good here too.
4 cups Vegetable Stock or Broth
10-12 cups chopped full-leaf Romaine, including the dark outer leaves for best flavor
Salt & White Pepper to taste

Juice of a Lime
Garnishes:  Croutons or buttered Toast Points, Bacon Bits, Sour Cream or Cashew Crema, shaved Almonds or toasted Pine Nuts. If you're daring, add a couple dashes of hot sauce. 

In your pot, saute the onion in the butter until soft but not brown.  Add the lettuce and cover for a couple minutes to let it wilt.  Add the broth and simmer until everything is soft.  Puree the soup until silky smooth, stir in the lime juice, and chill for at least 2 hours before serving.  Garnish as desired.  

A perfect dinner for our hot Florida evenings.  Slices of cold tomato with a dollop of Bleu Cheese dressing make a tasty and colorful side 'salad' for this soup. 

If you don't have vegetable stock or broth handy, 2 Tbsp of my Scarborough Fayre spice blend in a quart of water is a good alternative.  This soup is very 'spice sensitive'; a little spice goes a long way in flavoring the final result.