Cooking for a crowd

Happy November 1st! I wanted to share a great gazpacho recipe that I made for a Halloween Party I did. I called it Bloody Mary Gazpacho shooters. It is non alcoholic and fun to serve in little tiny cups (I found great disposable plastic cups at a website called jbrince.com)

here it is:

4 medium ripe tomatoes, chopped
4 cubes frozen garlic
1 English cucumber, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
4 cups Spicy Bloody Mary mix
1/4 cup or balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
½ tsp. cumin
kosher salt and pepper to taste
croutons- for garnish

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and toss. In a blender or food processor, mix a few cups at a time until just slightly chunky. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve chilled.
Makes 4 servings.

I just made some Baja Fish Tacos for a journalist who came out to interview me for a story that's coming out in the Connecticut Post on 11/20.

Here's the recipe:

Baja Fish Tacos with lime coleslaw
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
flour
Seasoning salt- such as Lawry’s
1 pound tilapia, flounder, sole, or any thin white fish
Corn tortillas
2 limes
mango salsa
1 onion halved and sliced
2 tomatoes quartered
1 package shredded cabbage
2 Tbs. rice wine vinegar
1 Tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper

For tacos:
Heat oil and butter in a large nonstick pan on medium high heat. While the pan is heating, cut fish into 2 inch long strips. In a shallow plate, add seasoned flour mixture (3 parts flour to 1 part salt) -make seasoned flour and store in a jar to use in the future. Dredge fish pieces in flour mixture, and place fish in pan. Heat tortillas until just soft (a toaster oven works well). Cook fish for 2 minutes on each side, remove from pan, and squeeze lime juice and a pinch of salt on fish pieces. When all fish has cooked, cook onion and tomato in pan for 1 minute, or until just barely softened. Assemble tacos by placing fish, onion, tomatoes and salsa in tortillas.

For coleslaw:
Drizzle coleslaw with juice from a lime, rice wine vinegar, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Serve fish tacos over coleslaw.