Recipe: Tilapia cakes

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I think this recipe was born when I was looking for a way to use up leftover fish. Tilapia is a good friend to our kitchen, in part because they sell beautiful farm-raised tilapia at Costco in packages big enough for dinner plus leftovers. I also like its mildness and versatility. I've made versions of these fish cakes with salmon too, and that's fine, but they definitely taste like salmon. The tilapia makes it more flexible in terms of seasonings.

It does help to make the patties an hour or two in advance so they can firm up in the refrigerator before frying. They hold together better that way.

My husband points out that the reason the kids like these is that they're like big round fish sticks. I think of them more as crab cake stand-ins, but it doesn't matter much. They disappear quickly in our house.

Tilapia cakes with lemon-caper sauce
makes 12 generous patties

1/2 plus 1/4 cup mayonnaise, divided
4 Tbsp capers
juice and zest of one lemon
3 lbs tilapia fillets
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 bell pepper, any color, chopped
2 eggs
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (dry or fresh)
salt and pepper to taste
flour, for dredging patties before frying
olive oil, for frying

Make sauce: In a bowl, mix together 1/2 cup mayonnaise, lemon juice, capers, and salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until it's time to eat.

Make patties: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake the tilapia fillets on a baking sheet about 15 minutes, or until cooked through. Let cool, then flake in a big bowl.

To the flaked fish add 1/4 cup mayonnaise, lemon zest, scallions, bell pepper, eggs, breadcrumbs, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix together until all ingredients are well distributed, especially the eggs. Form into patties about the size of hamburgers - wet your hands first if it's too sticky. Put the patties on a baking sheet and refrigerate an hour or two to let the patties firm up a bit.

Heat about a half-inch of olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Put some flour in a shallow bowl or on a plate, and coat each patty in the flour. This will make a nice crusty shell when you fry the patties, so even though it's a little bit of a pain, don't skip it.

Fry the patties in the olive oil until golden brown on both sides. Serve with the sauce. Watch them evaporate.

Tonight's dinner: Turkey burgers, sweet potato pancakes, and green beans

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For dinner tonight:

• Turkey burgers, with a sauce made of mayonnaise, pesto, little dill pickles and capers, all whizzed in the mini-chopper (and I added some of the sauce to the ground turkey before I made the patties)
• Leftover sweet potato latkes with homemade apple-pear sauce
• Blanched green beans with olive oil and coarse red Hawaiian salt
• Organic herb salad (from the 99cent store, can you believe it?)

A simple dinner at home with our friend Laura, who joins us at our table a few times a week. Nothing fancy. Delicious, though.

Recipe: Chicken pot pie, the easy way

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I was watching Paula Deen on the food channel the other day, and she made something uncharacteristically simple: a chicken pot pie that took about five minutes to put together. Because we've been spending so much time at home this week I've been trying to make meals that put a smile on everyone's face and make being home appealing - we're all missing our sushi lunches, but at the moment budgets are tight for everyone, hm?

So I threw together a variation on that chicken pot pie. Everyone loved it. And today there's only a tiny bit left, so someone's been at the leftovers....

Easy chicken pot pie

1 cooked rotisserie chicken, meat taken off the bones and pulled apart into bite-size pieces

2 cups frozen vegetable mix (peas, carrots, corn, etc.)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/4 cup white wine

salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups biscuit mix, e.g. Bisquick

1 cup milk

1 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spray a casserole dish (I used a five-quart cast iron dutch oven) with cooking spray. Put the chicken and then the vegetables in the casserole. Mix together the cans of soup, wine, and one cup of water, and pour over the chicken and vegetables. Shower with salt and pepper to taste.

Mix biscuit mix and milk and pour over casserole. On top, pour melted butter.

Bake at 375 degrees for about an hour, until golden brown on top and bubbling underneath. It might take less than an hour, depending on what vessel you've used. Serve and eat.

Recipe: Hanukkah latkes (potato pancakes) for an army

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We've been invited to yet another Hanukkah celebration tonight - how lucky for us! - and I volunteered to make the latkes. For about 30 people.

We got started early this morning. Michael washed and cut the potatoes and sweet potatoes into pieces small enough to fit down the tube of the food processor. Yes, I have to admit, I do not hand-grate my potatoes. I haven't found that it makes much of a difference to the final product, as long as I follow several key steps afterward.

So first I chopped the onions in the food processor and dumped them into two bowls (one for the regular potatoes, one for the sweet potatoes). Then I shredded the potatoes, about eight huge regular ones and 10 smaller sweet potatoes. To each bowl I added eight eggs and a cup and a half of flour, plus a few tablespoons of salt. And then it was time to fry. Which I did in two skillets, with canola oil, on medium-high heat. I'll reheat them later in the oven at the party.

The trick when frying, especially for the regular potatoes, is to scoop the mixture from the top of the bowl with a slotted spoon, so the liquid can drain off before it goes into the pan. I know a lot of people take the time to squeeze out their potatoes and onions before mixing with the other stuff, but I find that once you salt them more liquid comes out anyway. This is less crucial with the sweet potatoes, which give off less liquid in the first place, but important with the regular potatoes.

It took an hour to do the potato latkes in two pans. I'm still working on the sweet potato ones. Whoops, better go turn them.

Darn, that batch got a little too brown. I forget that the sweet potato ones burn faster. Maybe I'd better write this when I'm done!

Recipe: Taco rice casserole, lunch for a rainy day

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I have a few quick, easy, one-pot meals in my stable on which I rely again and again. This dish, which can be called Spanish rice, Mexican rice, taco rice, and probably many other things, is one of my family's favorites. It takes only a few minutes to prepare, can be made days ahead and reheated, freezes fine, and is fun to decorate with various condiments (always a hit with the kids).

Taco rice

serves an infinite number of people (because I always make a lot)

• 3 lbs ground turkey or beef
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 bell peppers, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 Tbsp chili powder or taco seasoning
• 2 cans tomato sauce
• 2 cans diced tomatoes with juice or puree
• 2 cups rice (I use brown medium-grain, but any rice will do)
• 1 large bunch scallions, chopped
• 1 large bunch cilantro, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• accompaniments: shredded cheese, sour cream, guacamole, crushed tortilla chips

Brown meat in large pot over high heat. Add onions and peppers; stir about five minutes, until vegetables are softened. Add garlic and chili powder; stir one minute. Add tomato sauce, tomatoes, rice and three to four cups of water. You want it to look soupy at this point, because the rice will absorb a lot of the liquid as it cooks.

Bring to a boil, turn down the heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer until the rice is cooked and has absorbed the liquid. Stir in the scallions and cilantro. You'll want to check it every 20 minutes or so while it's cooking, and stir, to make sure there's enough liquid in the pot. If, at the end, the rice is cooked and there's still a lot of liquid, take off the lid and simmer it uncovered for a while.

Serve at this point with accompaniments, or turn off the heat and let it sit on the stove for a while. It keeps well. Reheat over low, adding more liquid if necessary so it doesn't burn on the bottom.

Note: This also makes an excellent filling, the next day, for quesadillas or burritos.