Dominican Republic- Banana leaf baked Tilapia with Spicy stuffing

Baked Tilapia (or Snapper or Halibut) : serves 4

I doubled the recipe for the stuffing to serve 8. Take that into consideration, but be sure to have atleast 8 tilapia fillets (1 per person), thawed (if previously frozen), with lime juice squeezed over them (juice of 1 lime or about 1 T)

Stuffing:

• 5 T butter
• 2 strips bacon, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 white onion, finely chopped
• 4 green onions, finely chopped
• 2 sprigs fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 green pepper, seeded, finely chopped
• 1 Scotch bonnet (or ANY hot pepper-- I used a mix of hot banana, jalapeno, and habanero) pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 tomato, cubed
• ½ t dried thyme
• ½ t dried marjoram
• 1 t salt
• 1 t freshly ground black pepper
• ½ C bread crumbs
• ¼ C pineapple juice with 1 teaspoon rum extract in it
• 1 large banana leaf (add to appearance and flavor-- can be purchased REALLY cheaply at your local Latin Mercado) or aluminum foil

Garnish:

• Tomato slices,
• Orange slices
• Sprigs of parsley

1. Rinse fish and pat dry inside and out. Squeeze lime juice all over and cover. Refrigerate til ready for use.

2. Saute bacon in ¼ C butter about 4 minutes. Add ingredients through hot peppers, sauté til tender, stirring occasionally.

3. Add tomato, herbs, wine, bread crumbs and stir to combine thoroughly. Simmer, stirring constantly, for about 1 minute. Add pineapple juice/rum extract, stir, simmer another few minutes. Remove stuffing from stove and let cool.

4. preheat oven to 375 F

5. Place fish on top of banana leaf or foil. Stuff with filling and dot top with remaingin T of butter (alternatively, can just spray with butter flavored cooking spray). Fold over leaf or foil to seal the fish and bake 1 hour.

6. Transfer to serving platter along with leaf (discard foil) and garnish platter with whole sprigs surrounding fish and slices on top.

Pineapple Fried Rice

As usual I had so much fun with you all! The food was amazing, I loved it all! Here is my recipe I found online.

You may have noticed my recipe made more than 4 servings, it was because I used 4 cups of uncooked rice, when cooked and and used all of it....way too much rice! But you will did a great job of eating it, we only had a few leftovers!

First the ingredients:

1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/3 cup peanut oil
1 lb. black tiger shrimp(peeled and deveined) ( just used normal shrimp-whatever was on sale)
1/3 cup diced carrot
1/3 cup diced onion ( I used a yellow onion)
1 egg (beaten) ( I used 2 eggs because I had so much rice)
4 cups cooked jasmine rice ( you noticed I had a lot more than that!)
1 tablespoon butter (I used 2 T)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/3 cup sweet peas
1/3 cup raisin
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 fresh pineapple (cut in half,remove fruit, cut into chunks) ( FYI I read online how to make a pineapple boat)
1/3 cup roasted cashews ( didn't use because Scottie is allergic)

Directions:

1. In a wok at medium-high heat, add the garlic and oil and stir until golden brown. Add the shrimp and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Follow with carrot and onion, stirring for 2 minutes
2. Add the beaten egg and stir constantly for 30 seconds. Add rice, butter, salt, sugar, white pepper, sweet pea, raisin, soy sauce and fresh pineapple and stir until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, approximately 3 minutes.
3. Remove from heat, place in hollowed-out pineapple halves and top with cashews before serving.
Yield: 4 servings

Recipe taken from "Crying Tiger: Thai Recipes from the Heart" by Supatra Johnson.

Thai BBQ Pork

Here is the recipe I made for our Thai dinner. It was given to me by a good friend from High School who is Thai.

Thai BBQ Chicken or Pork
By Bea Robinson

Ingredients

6-8 Chicken breasts or pork chops (the thinner the better)
1/2 - 3/4 heads of garlic (I like lots of garlic.)1 bunch Cilantro (only use the stems, just trim off 1/4" at the roots and then use the rest of the remaining stems; chop them small before putting it in the food processor)
1 Tbps. olive oil
½ t. Sugar
4 t. Soy sauce
¼ t. Salt
2 t. Black pepper
7 Tbps. Oyster sauce

1. Put garlic, cilantro, and olive oil in food processor. Blend it to paste (approx. 2 mins.)2. Put paste into a big bowl and add a few cilantro leaves (chop finely) 3. Add the rest of the ingredients into the paste 4. Add meat and let it marinade OVERNIGHT! (crazy I know but it's better overnight.) Make sure to rub the marinade into the meat.5. Brush vegetable oil on the grill. This prevents th meat from sticking to the grill. Grill meat until done. You can even save the marinade and keep basting until done. 6. Slice meat approx. ½ inch wide or leave it whole.

Bastilla

Recipe taken from Moroccan Modern by Hassan M'Souli
I have included the recipe as given in the book with my alterations in parenthesis.

Ingredients

Chicken
3 lb whole chicken (in the future I would just use chicken breast to save time)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 brown onion, diced (yellow)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon saffron threads (1/2 teaspoon turmeric)
2 bay leaves
1 preserved Lemon (some lemon juice)
3 cups water (I used only two)
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Creamy eggs
6 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup orange blossom water (watered down orange juice)

Glazed onion
1/2 orange blossom water
1 brown onion, halved and finely sliced
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup toasted flaked almonds
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

7 tablespoons butter (I used only 3 or 4)
1 tablespoon orange blossom water
Filo pastry
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar, to dust
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
orange segments and strawberries, to garnish

Cut the chicken into quarters. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, garlic, and ginger, fry for a minute then add the saffron, bay leaves and lemon. Fry for about 3 minutes, until softened slightly.

Add the chicken and cover with water. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for about 20 minutes, until coked. Remove the chicken from the pan. Allow to cool, then pull the meat off the bones and slice it into strips.

Boil the sauce until reduced by half. Take out half and reserve for later.

To make the creamy eggs, add the eggs, cilantro, salt and orange water to the remaining sauce in the saucepan. Stir over low heat until creamy, taking care not to over cook. Remove from heat and set aside.

For the glazed onion, place the reserved sauce and the orange blossom water into a frying pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, until reduced further. Add the onion, confectioners' sugar, and cinnamon and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the almonds, stir through, and set aside.

Preheat over to 350. Melt the butter and combine with orange juice. Brush two trays with some of the orange butter. Layer 9 sheets of filo pastry in a fan pattern covering the tray and overhanging the sides. Fold another sheet in half and place in the center. Spoon on the glazed onion mixture, fold over 3 sheets of the overhanging filo to cover, place another folded sheet in the center and brush with orange butter.

Spoon on the creamy eggs to make another layer. Fold over 3 more sheets of overhanging filo, place another folded sheet in the center and brush with orange butter.

Add the chicken to make another layer and cover with folded remaining filo sheets. Fold over remaining 3 sheets of overhanging filo and brush with orange butter.

Bake in the oven until the pastry has browned on the top. Turn on the other tray, brush with orange butter and cook to brown the underside. ( I did not do this because mine was not flat more dome-ish. It seemed to brown fine on the bottom.)

Transfer to a serving tray and duct with sugar and cinnamon and garnish with orange and strawberry segments.