GUEST RECIPE: murloco’s tacos [baja-style fish tacos]

blog_murlocostacos_title

Hi! My name is Homebrewed, some of you may know me from Twitter. I am a huge fan of Warcraft and more recently Hearthstone. My favorite amphibious humanoid is the Murloc, I am even quite fluent in Nerglish. So, my recipe I want to share with you today is Murlocos, Baja-style Mur…fish tacos.

https://twitter.com/HomebrewedDwarf/status/536372067592314881

The weeks after I came back from BlizzCon I received some news from the doctor, in other words, I need to start eating healthier. So in this venture, I have been cooking at home a lot more and finding different ways to make some of my favorite food to fuel up into between work and gaming. I was inspired by a dish I had one time at The Reservoir – Restaurant and Tap Room – Waterbury.

There are some things you can do ahead of ahead to cut on the actual time from cooking to eating when you go to fry your fish and assemble your tacos. I recommend making the pickled jalapeños and the cilantro onion salsa the day before as it keeps for at about a week. Also, I do want to recommend, that when you slice the jalapeños you buy some cheap plastic gloves, powder free, to protect your hands.

blog_murlocostacos_jalapenos

Total prep time for this dish is about 1 hour. Cook time is 40 minutes. This recipe will make roughly about 16 tacos. You will end up with leftover condiments! 

OPENING HAND

blog_murlocostacos_ingredients

EARLY GAME

Ingredients

  1. 3/4 cup water
  2. 3/4 cup distilled white vinegar
  3. 3 tablespoons white sugar
  4. 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  5. 1 clove garlic, crushed
  6. 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  7. 10 large jalapeno peppers, sliced into rings

Directions (Pickled Jalapeño)

  1. Combine water, vinegar, sugar, kosher salt, garlic, and oregano in a saucepan over high heat. Bring mixture to a boil, stir in jalapeno peppers and remove from heat. Let mixture cool for 10 minutes.
  2. Pack peppers into jars using tongs, cover with vinegar mixture, cover, and refrigerate until needed.

blog_murlocostacos_shuttershades

MID RANGE

Ingredients

  1. 1 large red onion, thinly sliced
  2. 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
  3. 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
  4. 2 teaspoons olive oil
  5. 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  6. 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions (Cilantro Onion Salsa)

Chop everything, juice your lime, and place all the mixture into a mason jar and pop it in the fridge.

blog_murlocostacos_salsa

Ingredients

  1. 3/4 cup cold seltzer water
  2. 1/2 large egg, beaten
  3. 1/4 cup cold vodka
  4. 2.5 ounces unbleached cake flour, by weight
  5. 2.5 ounces white rice flour, by weight
  6. 1 liter vegetable or sunflower oil
  7. 1 pound haddock or cod
  8. Red cabbage, sliced
  9. 16 corn tortillas
  10. Kosher salt

LATE GAME

Directions (Fish & Assemble)

  1. Slice up your cabbage and put asideblog_murlocostacos_cabbage
  2. Slice fish into pieces that are about two inchesin depthblog_murlocostacos_fish
  3. Heat oil in a cast iron Dutch oven to 375 degrees
  4. Combine seltzer, egg, and vodka in a bowl
  5. Combine rice flour and cake flour in a separate bowl
  6. When your oil reaches temperature, add the wet to the dry ingredients and whisk to combine and surround that bowl with ice on the outside to keep the batter coldblog_murlocostacos_batter
  7. Dip your fish into your batter, shaken off excess, and slowly place into the oil about four pieces at a time
  8. Cook for about two minutes until golden brown and remove from heat
  9. Place cooked fish on a paper towel and season with saltblog_murlocostacos_frying
  10. Heat your corn tortillas directly over the burner if you have a gas stovetop turning with tongs to heat them through or in a pan with a very slight mist of water
  11. Put everything together and enjoy!blog_murlocostacos_macro

Aaaaaughibbrgubugbugrguburgle!

blog_murlocostacos_finished

——————————————————————————————————–

Special guest recipe by Homebrewed. He’s a  writer, a Hearthstone aficionado, and a Murloc whisperer! You can follow his adventures on his Twitter: @HomebrewedDwarf 

 

healthstones [matcha green tea protein balls]

blog_healthstones_title
I PVP a lot. The majority of my time spent in WoW is either queuing up for Arenas, skirmishes or battle grounds. I’m even guilty of using the group finder to join large gank squads that roam the lands of Draenor for the sole purpose of farming the bones of the enemy faction.

blog_healthstones_bonesOH HEY GUYS WHATCHA DOIN??

The Arena team I run with is comprised of a Hunter (that’s me!), a Paladin and a Warlock. Before each match, our Warlock slaps down a Soulwell so we can create Healthstones. Of course, I always saw it as tasty tasty food.

blog_healthstones_pvp

I CAN’T SEE ANYTHING

So, I decided to recreate my own real life Healthstones so I can eat Healthstones while I eat Healthstones. Yo dawg.

blog_healthstones_ingame

I keep a lot of protein powder at home because my boyfriend and I are trying really hard to achieve sick gains. I have been religiously following the YouTube channel, Buff Dudes, for inspiration on healthy cooking and workout routines. Some of their recipes turn not-so-healthy things, such as brownies, into handheld protein-fueled snacks. My goal with Healthstones is to sneakily hide protein and nutrition into bite-sized portable snacks. A quick snack to enjoy before your next arena match!

blog_healthstones_ingredients

UNIT COMPOSITION

  1. 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder
  2. 2 teaspoons of raw agave nectar
  3. 1 tablespoon of shredded coconut (optional)
  4. 1 tablespoon of unsweetened matcha green tea powder
  5. 1/4 cup of raw pistachios, roughly chopped
  6. 1/2 cup of peanut butter or almond butter

BUILD ORDER

Prep time for this is about 15 minutes (add 10 minutes of blanching the pistachios) This makes 6 servings (~6 individual Healthstones). Idle time is about 30 minutes. 

OPTIONAL: If you want squeaky clean pistachios without the skins, I recommend blanching them. To blanch them, take your shelled pistachios and toss them into boiling water for about 30 seconds.

blog_healthstones_blanchingThen remove the pistachios from the hot water and place them in a bath of ice water. Once they are cool to the touch, gently rub off the skins from the pistachios. Let them dry on a towel for a few minutes.

  1. Combine your protein powder, agave, and peanut butter in a large bowl.
  2. Add in your matcha green tea powder.
  3. Using a spoon, stir the ingredients together, adding coconut occasionally to thicken the mixture.
    blog_healthstones_mix
  4. Stir in half of your chopped pistachios. Leave larger pieces for later in order to decorate the stones.
  5. Begin shaping them into golf-ball sized mounds. Place large pieces of pistachio on the mounds for decoration.blog_healthstones_forming
  6. Sprinkle a little protein powder onto a plate (this is to prevent the Healthstones from sticking to the plate while cooling). Place your newly shaped Healthstones on the plate and cover with saran warp. Let cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
  7. Eat!

blog_healthstones_done

GG WP!

Next time you queue up for arena or LFR, make sure you have some tasty Healthstones in your bag to curb your hunger. Thankfully, these Healthstones don’t have a cool down.