I wanted to share this recipe with you today for Extra Crispy Chicken Wings. Not only is it an easy chicken wings recipe, but it is also a small batch chicken wing recipe.  

Built for the smaller family, although you could certainly double or triple it if you wanted to! It makes just enough oven baked chicken wings for two people, no more no less, and I can promise you that they are delicious! 

  

Cod Cheeks.  Yep you read that right.  Cod Cheeks.  I adore Cod Cheeks.  To me they are every bit as delicious if not more so than scallops or lobster.  

Seriously. If you have never tried them, you have no idea what you are missing. 

  

Fish cheeks are a great delicacy.  A tiny pocket of meat, found just below the eyes,  they are tender and have a wonderful flavour.  Little nuggets of deliciousness.  

Most Chef's love them as they are boneless, skinless and have a beautiful texture which lends itself to a variety of cooking methods.

 

My favourite way of cooking them is to coat them in a well flavoured cornmeal crumb and then fry them in hot oil.

 

They take literally just a few minutes to cook and are so tender and delicious when done. 

 

And it is such a simple way to prepare them.  You just mix cornmeal (which is like a fine polenta) together with some simple seasonings . . .  cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt. 

 

Don't freak out at the amount of pepper.  Its the perfect amount. Trust me on this.

 

You simply roll the cod cheeks in the cornmeal mixture and then fry.  It only takes 3 to 4 minutes per side for them to be done to perfection. 

 

Perfectly crisp and golden brown on the outside . . .  tender and succulent on the inside.  You can't ask for much better than that. 

 

Bite sized and filled with flavour.  I get mine from The Fish Society.  Their Cod Cheeks are sustainably sourced from Norwegian waters.  

 

Fish from the Fish Society comes straight to your door, with an overnight delivery, and it is beautifully packaged.  It arrives in perfect condition ready to throw right into your own freezer.  

All of their fish is frozen shortly after catching and is of a far superior quality than that which you can buy at the shops, which in all likelihood has already been frozen once, thawed and then presented to you on ice.  I have never been disappointed in any fish I have received from them and they have a huge range to choose from.

 

Today I served these lovely cheeks with some chips and homemade coleslaw . . .  just like you would be served in a restaurant back home in Nova Scotia.

 

In the old days, when Cod was plentiful, it would not have been unusual to find Cod Cheeks the size of your fist, but sadly Cod of that size are no longer very common.  

They are coming back however, and that is a good thing.  Of all the fishes in the sea, Cod is my favourite.

  

I tried to get a photograph so I could show you how tender and succulent these are inside.  Kind of hard because it is so white, so I guess you will have to take my word for  it.  These bite sized babies are delicious!

 

 

I called this down East Coleslaw because it is lightly sweetened with Maple Syrup.  Because I am a Diabetic I used a no sugar one, which isn't really Maple Syrup, but trust me when I tell you that it is very, very good nonetheless.  Even better with the real thing.

I really hope you want to try Cod Cheeks!  I think you will find that they are really very  wonderful, and highly underrated!  Give cheeks a chance!

Cowboy Casserole.  Such a simple name, but wow, what fabulous flavours.  This recipe I am sharing with you today is one I have adapted from a cookerybook entitled the Betty Crocker Ultimate Bisquick Cookbook. 

I bought it second hand from Amazon. Most of the time their second hand books are quite reasonable and in fairly decent shape. My heart breaks when I think of the cookbook collection I had to leave behind in the UK.  All of my Dorie Greenspan books, etc.  I will hopefully gradually be able to build the collection back up again in time. We will see.

One thing which appealed about this recipe is the fact that it seemed relatively simple to make and did not require a lot of ingredients. My sister had taken a pound of ground beef from the freezer.  I made several suggestions as to what we could make with it.

Most received a nay.  This recipe did tempt them however, and I got the go-ahead. Whew!  You can use ready made Bisquick for this or you could make your own baking mix to use in this.  I always made my own baking mix when I was in the UK. You can get that recipe here.

You could also make a homemade biscuit dough of a dropping consistency to drop over top of the casserole. I have included some instructions on how to do that in the recipe.

 

All work well. All are delicious, although I do have to say I am a bit partial to the homemade biscuit dough. It is probably because of the butter. 😋 Butter makes everything tastier.

I am not sure why it is called Cowboy Casserole. Probably because of the ground beef and the baked beans.  Surely cowboy types of foods.  Many a cowboy has been sustained by ground beef and baked beans when out on the range. 

My sister buys organic grass-fed beef.  She buys it at a local farm market, frozen in one pound packages. When I was in the UK I bought ground steak from my local butcher.

In any case you want to use a good quality of ground beef here. You want it fairly lean. I think if I was living on my own I would just grind up my own steak for this. 

I cannot stand cheap ground beef. Not only do you end up pouring half of it away in fat, which is a huge colossal waste of money, but it stinks when you are cooking it.

There is no economy in buying cheap ground meat.  The fat content is far too high for one thing. And you are paying for all of that fat.  Fat which you will not be eating.

Or at least that you shouldn't be eating, not if you care for your arteries anyways. A small amount of fat is okay, but I would never use beef that had any more than 5 % fat in it.  This is just my way of thinking and how I like to do things.

But then again ground beef has never really been a favourite of mine and not something I would eat at all when I was growing up. And I am really not fond of it mixed with other things, as in casseroles. Its a texture thing. 

You know what they say . . . .  there's naught so queer as folk.  And some of us are a bit weirder than others!  We are all different and I like to celebrate our differences as much as I can!

Life would be incredibly boring were we all the same!  Now back to the casserole.

You need a tin of baked beans for this, and some prepared BBQ sauce. You could make your own BBQ sauce if you wanted to.  For this recipe you would need tomato ketchup, brown sugar, cider vinegar, Worcestshire sauce, dry mustard powder and some seasoning.

I would start with 1/2 cup (120g) of the ketchup and add 1 TBS each of the brown sugar and cider vinegar.  1 tsp of dry mustard powder, 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce and then salt and black pepper to your taste.

If you have it you could add liquid smoke to really give it that campfire taste.

We used an ordinary can of original baked beans. (Bush's) In the UK you could use Heinz or any other brand. I think in something like this the brand of baked beans doesn't really matter that much overall.

I did find that the mixture was a bit too thick and so I added a bit of boiling water to thin it out a bit and it could have been a bit thinner still I think.  You judge accordingly.

You don't want it too thin and you don't want it too thick. I would also be tempted to add an additional half a can of beans, but then I really like baked beans.

You could really amp it up by adding some chopped onion, green chillies and garlic when you are frying the ground beef. That would give it it a bit of delicious heat, but it is up to you!

As you can see it was fairly thick.  The biscuit dough absorbs some of the liquid, so don't be afraid to make your beef  mixture a bit thinner! 

Its really delicious however, so don't mess with the flavours too much. They don't do salt at all in this house so I only added some ground black pepper.  And to be honest you really didn't need any salt.

I've never been one to add a lot of salt to things anyways, but I often do add a tiny bit to things.  Its all a matter of taste and what you are used to.  Using less salt never hurt anyone.

And in fact its much better for you to use less.

We actually used a Tex Mex mix of cheese to sprinkle on top that we had leftover from some natchos we had made around New Years. It was a tiny bit spicy so that worked well with the rest of the flavours.

I would normally use a good strong cheddar cheese. The stronger the flavour of your cheese, the less you need to use. Its a fact.

Anyways, I think this was enjoyed. I had no complaints really and I did enjoy it myself.  I served it with some homemade coleslaw.  I do make good coleslaw if I don't say so myself. 

You can find my coleslaw recipe here. Creamy Coleslaw. Its my favourite. I don't always add the cucumber. Yesterday it was only cabbage, carrots and some scallion/spring onion.  BBQ always goes well with coleslaw.  

 

I hope you will want to give this a go.  I highly recommend it for a fabulously tasty, family friendly, mid-week supper entree!

  

Mahi Mahi, also known as the Dorado or Dolphin fish is a beautiful fish that is not only sustainable but very easy to cook.  It has a firm white flesh that is fairly mild in flavour.  This makes it quite adaptable, hearty enough to grill and yet firm enough to sear, glaze, fry, etc.  making it very versatile. Don't confuse it with the common Dolphin.  This is not Flipper.  Don't worry. Far from being even closely related to its namesake Mahi Mahi is highly sustainable, responsibly fished and harvested due to strong regulations.  They spawn and grow rapidly, which helps to keep their population stable. 

 

The people at Seafresh recently sent me some to try. I was quite excited at the opportunity to try a new fish I had never tried before!  I decided to give it a somewhat simple treatment.  I created a sweet and savoury rub to coat it with and then simply pan seared it  until it was nicely blackened on the outside, but perfectly cooked on the inside.

 

I had to do some research on the fish first so that I knew how to cook it properly.  I learnt a lot about it and about what it might taste like. Having never tasted it before I was flying in the dark here! 

 

It is a carnivorous fish which gathers in schools which mostly eat forage fish.   The word Mahi (Hawaiian) means strong and these fish are strong and fast swimmers.  

They are brightly coloured and mostly found in Pacific waters, although they can also be found in the Atlantic.

 

They are considered to be highly nutritious and rich in Iron and low-fat protein. Low in sodium and rich in Omega-3, which not only are good for your heart but also help to combat cancer. 

 

It is also a great source of essential minerals and important B vitamins, so altogether it can be considered a fairly healthy fish to eat.  It is however high in cholesterol so if you are watching yours, you will still want to consume it in moderation.

 

I was told that it had a fairly mild flavour  . . .  not a "strong fishy" flavour.  I am not fond of overly fishy flavoured fish.  I can just about tolerate Salmon.  

So what did it taste like?  

It was definitely not benign in flavour like cod, it was probably more like Halibut, so not unpleasant at all.

  

I was quite surprised that the flesh turned out as white as it did when cooked.  It was quite darkish raw so I expected it to cook dark, but it was not dark in the least!

 

Other than that searing rub I put onto it  . . .  the interior flesh was cream-coloured when cooked . . .

 

It had a very firm texture, which I think would make it excellent for using in Fish Tacos, or for grilling on the BBQ.

 

I am thinking it would also be lovely stir fried . . .

 

I had made a lime and honey dressed coleslaw to go with it, almost like a pickle, except fresher . . .

  

It went very well.  I would highly recommend.  I can't wait to try it again one day! 

 

Here is the recipe for the sweet and tangy coleslaw which I made to serve with the fish.  It went down a real treat. Do beware however it is more like a pickle and will not keep well, so whilst you can prep the vegetables ahead of time, you shouldn't dress them until just prior to serving.

 

Here you can see how creamy white the flesh actually was when it was cooked, a complete contrast to what I had expected when I first saw this fish raw. Seafresh is an on line fish monger, which sells quality fish, seafood, poultry and meat.  If you can recall, I was very impressed with both their product and their delivery service!  There was absolutely nothing that I could fault with any of it. Feel free to read about my experience here. Many thanks to Seafresh for sending me this Mahi Mahi to try.  There doesn't appear to be any  Mahi Mahi available on their page at the moment,but keep checking back to their website to see when it becomes available again.

 

A few things about Seafresh: