Oven-Fried Marinated Beer Batter Mushroom Tacos with Mexican Corn

Although fish tacos have been a staple in Southern California for decades (and, in a purer form, in Mexico long before that), it’s only in recent years that they’ve become quite the fashion throughout the U.S. Generally consisting of deep-fried battered fish (cod or similar) with shredded cabbage, a spiced, creamy sauce, and a few other simple toppings wrapped in a tortilla, it’s no wonder fish tacos in the Southern Californian style are so popular; they’re delicious. Unfortunately, that deliciousness comes at a price: deep fried fish topped with creamy sauce will generally be on the fatty side.


But fear not, dear readers. In this week’s recipe we’ll make Oven-Fried Marinated Beer Batter Mushroom Tacos, a fish-taco inspired version that uses marinated portabella mushrooms instead of fish, and that reduces the fat by oven-frying them in a beer batter and topping them with a low-fat creamy sauce.


There’s also a quick, simple Mexican Corn side dish.


As usual, some Cook’s Notes before we begin:
• Oven frying is very much like breading and baking except it has more crunch. I’ve experimented with many coatings over the years, and crushed cornflakes are the best coating I’ve found, much better than bread crumbs or panko. (Although you can buy crushed cornflakes in the bread crumb aisle, I recommend buying regular corn flakes in the cereal aisle and going over them with a rolling pin as shown below. It costs a lot less to do it that way, and you also get to control the size of the crushed pieces.)
• Traditional fish tacos include shredded red cabbage. You can do that here too, but since we need only a small amount, and I didn’t want to waste most of a large red cabbage, I used radicchio in its place.
• The heat in the sauce is mild. If you like it hotter, just increase the amount of hot sauce.


So let’s get started making this reduced-fat take on a Southern California classic that’s, like, totally awesome, dude!


This recipe makes eight soft tacos, which will usually be about four servings.


First, let’s marinate our mushrooms.
Slice 4 portabella mushrooms into strips about 3/4” wide.










Make the marinade by combing ¼ cup cider vinegar; 1 clove garlic, minced; ½ tablespoon of dried basil; ½ tablespoon of dried parsley; ½ tablespoon of dried oregano; ½ teaspoon salt; and ¾ cup olive oil. (Add the olive oil by drizzling it into the other mixed ingredients while whisking to keep a smooth consistency.)


Pour marinade into a gallon-size tight-sealing plastic bag. Place the sliced mushrooms in the bag with the marinade. Let them marinate for about 30 minutes, turning periodically for evenness.


Next, we’ll make our beer batter.


In a bowl, combine the following and mix until a thick, smooth batter forms: 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon ground white pepper; 12 ounces beer; and 2 egg-substitute eggs.


While the mushrooms are marinating, prepare the breading station.


Using a rolling pin, make 4 cups of crushed cornflakes in a gallon-size tight-sealing plastic bag.







Place 1-1/2 cups of all-purpose flour in a gallon-size tight-sealing plastic bag. Place the bowl of batter to the right of the flour. Place the crushed cornflakes to the right of the batter.


To bread the mushrooms, working one mushroom slice at a time:


Place the mushroom slice in the flour and toss to coat.













Dip each mushroom slice in batter till coated. Shake off the excess batter.









Place each coated mushroom slice onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicon baking sheet. After all the mushroom slices have been placed on the baking sheet, cover it loosely with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 15 – 20 minutes.


While the mushrooms are in the refrigerator:


Begin pre-heating the oven to 400 degrees.


In a bowl, combine the following till well-mixed to form the sauce: 6 ounces fat-free plain yogurt; ½ cup low-fat mayonnaise; juice of ½ lime; ½ teaspoon ground cumin; ½ teaspoon dried basil; ½ teaspoon dried parsley; ½ teaspoon dried oregano; ¼ teaspoon hot sauce (add more for a spicier sauce); ½ teaspoon garlic powder; ½ minced jalapeno (seeds removed); ¼ cup fresh chopped cilantro; ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper.
When the mushrooms are ready to bake:


Spray the mushrooms with cooking spray and bake for about 11 minutes. Turn the mushrooms over and reverse the position of the baking tray for even baking. Wrap eight 8” low-fat tortillas in foil and place in the oven. Bake the mushrooms and the tortillas for another 11 minutes until the mushrooms are cooked through and the coating is crisp.


While the mushrooms are baking:


Prepare the Mexican Corn by combining 3-1/3 cups (about 1 pound) corn niblets (fresh or thawed frozen corn drained well); 1 green bell pepper, finely chopped; 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped; and 2 tablespoons chopped scallions in a very lightly oiled non-stick pan. (We want to brown the corn, not fry it.) Cook on the stovetop over medium heat until cooked through and some of the corn is slightly browned. When done, toss in a bowl with salt, pepper, butter substitute, and a squeeze of lime juice.


Prepare the following toppings: 1 radicchio, shredded; 1 bunch scallions, chopped small; chopped cilantro; and sliced fresh lime. (To shred the radicchio, just quarter it, remove the core from each quarter, and cut each quarter into 1/4" strips.)


To serve the tacos:


Along the center of each warmed tortilla, place some radicchio, two or three slices of mushrooms, some scallions, cilantro, and sauce.




Roll the tortilla and wrap in parchment or foil, with some of the taco sticking out.







Seal the roll by twisting the bottom.









Serve on a plate with the corn on the side, as shown in the photo at the top.


You can enjoy these soft tacos for lunch or dinner. (If you have any of the breaded mushroom strips left over, they’re also great heated up the next morning and served alongside some eggs for breakfast!)


To download a cookbook-style copy of this recipe, click here.


See you next week with another tasty recipe! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Oven Fried Green Tomatoes with Turkey Bacon

The classic southern side dish of fried green tomatoes was the topic of a recent conversation I had on Facebook. (Conversation, in this case, refers to a succession of “comments” written in response to a “status update.”) I don’t normally fry, and so I mentioned the possibility of making Oven Fried Green Tomatoes as a healthier alternative. This seemed to catch the interest of the person I was conversing with, and got me thinking about it seriously.


Fast forward a few weeks to pulling whatever I could from my garden in preparation for Hurricane Irene. My forced bounty included some nice-looking green Jersey beefsteak tomatoes, which I could either pickle (a staple of any good New York City kosher deli) or oven fry. I opted for oven-frying as described below. (If you would like to pickle your green tomatoes, click here for an easy refrigerator pickling method. Use the garlic brine.)


Regular readers of this space have seen oven-frying before (Country Oven Fried Steak; Baked Beer Batter Onion Rings). All follow the same basic structure: dip the food to be oven-fried in an appropriate liquid (e.g. milk, buttermilk, eggs), dredge in breading, spray with cooking spray or oil, and bake until crisp. If my southern friends let me get away with oven-frying Country Fried Steak, one of the south’s signature dishes, I could probably also get away with this one too.


This recipe uses low-fat buttermilk and crushed cornflakes; both are intended to maintain at least some southern authenticity. (Besides, cooking with corn flakes is fun.) Several toppings are commonly used; for simplicity, I’ve used fat free ranch dressing here.


This recipe makes 4-6 side dish size servings.


Cut 4 large green tomatoes into ¼” thick slices. Sprinkle the slices with salt and set into a colander for 30 minutes while the salt drains water from the sliced tomatoes. (Credit for this very clever trick goes to Paula Deen.)


While the tomatoes are draining, cook 2 or 3 slices of turkey bacon, cut it into small pieces, and set aside. While the bacon is cooking, prepare the breading mixture by combing 2 cups crushed corn flakes; 1 tablespoon of garlic powder; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper; and ½ teaspoon paprika.


Preheat oven to 450 degrees.


Prepare the “fry station” as follows:

• Put 1-1/2 cups of low fat buttermilk into a bowl
• Next to the buttermilk, put a bowl or plastic storage bag with the breading mixture.
Working one slice at a time, dip each tomato slice into the buttermilk, then into the breading mixture. If the tomato slice is well coated, place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or other non-stick surface. If the tomato slice is not well-coated, spray it with cooking spray and dredge it again in the breading mixture. Repeat a third time if necessary. After the slice is well-coated, place it on the lined baking sheet.


Apply cooking spray to the top side of each slice. Bake the tomatoes for 10 minutes. Turn the slices over, spray the other side of each slice, and bake until golden and tender, about 8-10 minutes more.


To serve, divide the slices into six servings, sprinkle bacon pieces on top, and top with ranch dressing.


If you’d like a cookbook-style, notebook-ready copy of this recipe, just let me know and I’ll send it along. (Be sure to include your e-mail address.)


See you next week with more easy, reduced-fat recipes! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

Country Oven-Fried Steak

For readers outside of the U.S. (and probably some American readers too), Country Fried Steak is one of the truly great comfort foods of the south. It’s a delicious, stick-to-your-ribs meal built around a steak that has been "tenderized" (a genteel culinary term for having the living daylights beaten out of it by a stressed cook wielding a spiked hammer that looks like something out of a horror movie or fetish shop) then dredged, breaded and fried in the style of fried chicken, and finally smothered in gravy. It differs from Chicken Fried Steak in ways that no one can agree on: some say it’s in the gravy (brown vs. white); others claim it’s in the breading (buttermilk vs. egg); and still others insist there’s no difference at all. The one thing almost everyone agrees on is that, in either form, it’s a meal that can start off by warming your heart, and end up stopping it.
This brings us to Country Oven-Fried Steak, the version presented below. Rather than being pan-fried, it’s baked in a manner sometimes called “oven-frying.” Another difference is in the gravy, which either version must be smothered in to have any chance at authenticity.  In the fried version, the gravy is generally made from pan drippings by adding flour, etc., in the usual way. In the baked version there are, of course, no pan drippings, so you’ll see that the gravy is prepared separately using beef broth.


This recipe, as with many Country Fried Steak recipes, calls for the steaks to be placed in about a cup of buttermilk before the breading is applied. Since buttermilk is usually available only in containers of a quart or more, unless you plan on using it for other things too you’ll end up throwing out most of the container. To avoid this, it’s possible to make acidulated milk and use it as a substitute for the buttermilk. Just take a cup of room temperature milk – I use skim and it works just fine – add a tablespoon of white vinegar and let it rest for about five minutes. (The process is a kind of controlled curdling.)


As for side dishes, many are possible, but mashed potatoes (smothered in gravy, just like the steak) are pretty traditional. In the photo, I’ve also plated my steak with glazed salt-and-vinegar carrots and buttermilk biscuits. I don’t have a recipe for the mashed potatoes – improvising them is way too much fun for that – but I’ll be posting recipes for the carrots and biscuits next week.


This recipe makes four servings.


Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Put your baking sheet in the oven to heat it.


Using a tenderizing mallet, tenderize 1-1/2 pounds of beef round steaks until they’re about ¼” thick. Cut them into four servings.


Combine ½ cup Panko and ½ cup plain bread crumbs with ¼ teaspoon of ground black pepper in a 1 gallon zip-lock bag. Put 1 cup of buttermilk (or acidulated milk) in a shallow pan.


Combine ½ teaspoon of kosher salt, ¼  teaspoon of ground black pepper, and ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder, and season both sides of the tenderized steaks. Dredge each steak in the buttermilk, shake off excess, and coat with the breadcrumb mixture, pressing the breadcrumbs in. If they don’t seem sufficiently coated, give them a second buttermilk-breadcrumb treatment. Let the coated steaks rest in refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.


When the steaks have finished resting, spray your preheated baking sheet with cooking spray. Place steaks on the baking sheet and spray the tops lightly. Bake until the coating is golden brown and crispy, about 20 minutes, turning half-way.


While steaks are baking, prepare gravy in a skillet as per the recipe below, but don’t let it completely thicken. When the gravy is ready, add the steaks and bring it to just boiling over medium-high heat.


When the gravy has started boiling, reduce the heat to low, put ½ a bunch of chopped green onions on top of the steaks, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve the steaks hot, remembering to add gravy to them and to your mashed potatoes.


To make the gravy:


In a medium saucepan, combine a 15 ounce can of beef broth, 1 tablespoon of fresh chopped rosemary, and 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. Bring the mixture just to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.


Make a slurry of 2 tablespoons of corn starch dissolved in ¼ cup of water and add to the broth mixture. Add ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, and cook until thickened to consistency of cream.


Whisk in 2 tablespoons of butter substitute, a little at a time, and cook a few minutes more to the desired thickness. Add salt and pepper to taste.


Hope you enjoy this comforting delight!


As always, if you’d like a cookbook style, notebook-ready copy of this recipe, send me a note or a comment with your e-mail address and I’ll send it right along.


And also as always, till next week, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)