Grapefruit Grouper

Well, I had some grapefruits to use so I started poking around online looking for recipies that would work for a grapefruit sauce on grouper fillets. I found some recipes for bbq grouper with sweet and sour grapefruit sauce so I figured it must work flavor wise. So then I started looking at some grapefruit sauce recipes in various areas. I took some ideas from a bunch of them and made this lunch. It was grouper in a grapefruit and ginger sauce, brown rice and steamed broccoli.

For the rice and broccoli is never occurs to me to us my double pot steamer. This time I remembered. I put my water for my rice on the bottom and the broccoli on the top and added the rice half way through. Though next time I will not add the pot with broccoli until my rice is already in. I just like my broccoli a little crispy.


*** One good idea to get your kids to eat veggies it to steam the veggies for the whole time that the rice is boiling and cooking and then mash the veggies into the rice. Sometimes I will add a little butter and garlic at the end. But my kids do not pick out the veggies then***

For the sauce I threw some red onion, a little garlic butter I had left, grated ginger (a little goes a long way) and some grapefruit segments and the juice and some water. I let those flavors simmer together while I got the other stuff ready. It did not take long for the sauce to start smelling really good. If I had a chili I would have thrown it in too but I did not.

The sauce turned this nice muted orange color and was smelling fantastic. I added the grouper which I seasoned with salt and pepper and left them alone for several minutes on each side, flipping once.

We plated them up and used up all of the sauce. Ours had a little too much ginger in it but it was still good. It was a very healthy and tasty lunch. And if this is not the ultimate test... my 4 year old ate every bite of broccoli florets, brown rice and grouper with grapefruit sauce. That is quite a victory for me.

Lena thought the fish was a little funny tasting. I think it was the ginger. This is one of the first times I have ever really used ginger. They had it at the store and Ruben loves it so... Hey, you try you learn.

Mexican Grilled Grouper in a Tequila Marinade, with brown rice and veggies and sliced mango

So armed with left over brown rice and veggies that I made last night, I set out to make a grouper recipe that was adapted from this web site I had all the fixings for it so I thought that I would give it a shot.

I marinaded the grouper fillets in some tequila, orange liquor, lime juice, garlic and salt. I set the in the fridge for about a half hour or so. I took a picture - it is a pretty boring fridge. And our "pantry" is not that much more exciting.

I then made the salsa. This was just tomatoes, white onion, red onion a little garlic, salt, pepper, a little sugar, _ I would have put in jalapenos but I did not have any. So I added a little red pepper flakes in the kids salsa and then added red pepper flakes and a little habanero salsa to our pico de gallo

I lightly oiled my grill pan and set the fish on there to cook for about 5-6 min. each side. Meanwhile I put the marinade in a little pan and simmered while the rice and veggies that we had leftover reheated.

When served it was a fillet of the marinade liberally dressing the top (this would have been a great topping for fresh steamed veggies. We then piled the pico de gallo on the fish and served with the leftover rice and veggies and sliced mango.


It was a great lunch. It tasted very fresh and light.

I just found this great web site that looks like it has some great recipies for fish.

Stuffed Red Snapper, Corn pudding and Zucchini pudding

Torta de Elote (corn pudding) Budin de Calabcaita (zucchini pudding) with Stuffed Red Snapper. My authentic Mexican dishes for our Cinco de Mayo celebration.

This recipe was first inspired by the fact that Ruben was working in the morning and was going to be home for dinner. And it was Cinco de Mayo so I wanted to make something nice. Red Snapper is one of Ruben's favorite, it is very traditionally Mexican (especially here on the Caribbean) and I was literally walking right by the pescaderia. I picked out my fish and they cleaned it up and slit it for me. he asked me how I was going to cook it so we could decide if I wanted the head and tail or just the fillet. He said that I should stuff it. Sounds good to me.

In the cookbook, Mexico, The Beautiful Cookbook with recipes by Susanna Palazuelos, that was recently given to me as a gift I found 2 recipes that used things that I had in the house and I thought would go nicely.

The first was Torta de Elote (corn pudding)- This consisted of 8 cups of corn (I only had 4 - oh well)3/4 butter, 2 teaspoons baking powder,& 1/4 teaspoon of salt although I added some cinnamon and sugar to make more of a sweet pudding and it was really wet so I added maybe 3/4 cup of flour.

After blending the corn in my trusty mini chopper, I mixed with the remaining ingredients and put into my baking dish.

Next I made Budin de Calabcaita (zucchini pudding) The recipe for this originally called for white cheddar cheese but we do not have an abundance of cheese here so I used a yellow cheddar like cheese- I have no idea what it is called.


4 cups zucchini, boiled-drained-mashed, add 1 cup shredded cheese, 1 beaten egg, 1 cup crushed soda crackers, 1/2 cup butter and salt and pepper. I did not have individual ramekins so I used a muffin tin- they still had to be scooped onto the plate and did not hold a form. Ramekins would have been better/prettier.

I then stuffed the red snapper with garlic, sliced onion, red peppers & zucchini with salt, pepper and Pappy's. I also seasoned the outside of the fish on both sides.


For the kids I put some onions, red peppers and garlic on the baking sheet and laid the fillet of grouper I had gotten for them on top. I then sprinkled both fish with lime juice.



After cooking the corn pudding for 30 min I let it stand while I baked the fish and zucchini for 20 minutes.


The food was great. The kids loved every bite of the food and Ruben and I were thrilled with our dinners to. Dessert was also perfect at simple vanilla ice cream, fresh cut mango and cajeta sauce.

Shrimp Tostada

This is one of those dishes that you see on a menu and it seems so easy, with such simple ingredients. Well, one thing that I have learned about cooking fresh and frugal - especially in Mexican cuisine, is that the separate ingredients, if done right, each take their own bit of time and effort. This was a typical tostada stacked with wonderful layers. The first, a fresh fried tortilla, black beans, "Spanish rice", lettuce, tomatoes, shrimp, avocado, salsa and queso fresco.


First I started with the shrimp in a pan of water with bay leaves, salt, pepper, Mexican oregano, chopped onion, garlic, a little left over green pepper and carrot. I have heard that making your own stocks makes a big difference in the taste of the food. And while I do not do it on a large scale so that I have stock ready on hand, I do cook it during a meal and usually have enough for left overs. Or the left overs will make a perfect stock. I am going to play more with stocks and do a whole entry on them. Anyway...


Pan 1- the soon to be shrimp stock- had all the things listed above and about 50 pesos worth of shrimp. 50 pesos of meat is what we average for our family to stay on budget and it has worked out well. I mean, we want more meat and less pasta and rice but you also have to meet the frugal of the "fresh and frugal" ideology. So Pan 1 is going and
in... Pan 2- we have some black beans, onion, and a touch of green pepper, salt - I think that was it. I have gotten used to the idea of simply adding on hand. That has been fun.

In a 3rd pan I made some simple white rice. And fried my tortillas in my favorite only non-stick pan. Once I was done with the tortilla, I set them aside and sautéed some tomatoes, a little onion, salt and pepper and threw in some of the shrimp stock that I had sitting on the back burner. I am sure that there is a lot that goes into Spanish rice.
That is why mine had quotes! Mine was pretty simple. Anyway.
After I set the rice aside I shelled and deveined the shrimp. I threw the shells back into the stock to draw some more flavors from them.
I threw the shrimp in to my favorite non stick skillet and watched them curl like they do so nicely in the restaurants. Then it came time to refry the beans. I was not sure if I had cooked them long enough so I re fried them with some of the stock. Then it was just a matter of assembly. 1st... the tortilla, then the beans, the rice, the lettuce, tomatoes, shrimp then topped with a little avocado and queso fresco. I knew Ruben needed some heat so I added to his some salsa and some pickled veggies that were part of a to-go plate the other day. All-in -all... a very good lunch.

Shrimp and Pasta in a Garlic Cream Sauce and Veggies

Okay, this dish was inspired by a killer fettuccini and salmon cream dish that we had on Lena's birthday and this cute little place in Tulum called 2 lum. First let me say that my cooking experience is made so much better since I decided to start prepping my food when I cook. For this dish, a shelled & deveined about 1/2 a kilo of shrimp and separated the meat and the shells. And my typical assortment of veggies, (onion, calabasa, broccoli, carrot, and TONS of garlic)

In one pan I heated heavy cream, a pinch of salt and pepper, a little garlic and the shells from the shrimp. ***Ruben made a good point... he suggested that I sauté the garlic for a moment before adding the cream. I think that I will do that next time. *** After allowing the shells to simmer in the cream, I removed the shells and the added the shrimp meat to cook in the sauce.



In another pan, I sautéed my veggie combo is some simple chicken stock that I had made.

In the last pan I boiled water and cooked spaghetti noodles with a touch of oil and salt until tender.

It was my intention to serve the veggies mixed with the pasta and shrimp but in the end I thought that the pasta would be better by itself in the garlic cream sauce and shrimp and the veggies had a punch of their own flavor. It was very good.