when bloggers collide…

Before I even start to tell you this story, my thanks to the Austin Food Blogger Alliance (AFBA) and Springdale Farm for hosting one heck of a party last night! Also to the good folks at Cooking Planit for their support of our endeavors, to Brittanie who recreated my “For the Birds” Salsa deliciously, and to Kristin for featuring a great shot of it (the salsa, I mean) on her blog today. Oh, and also thanks to the weather for cooperating… what luck we had!

Long story relatively short, the AFBA has decided to publish a cookbook of member recipes. To be sure that all the recipes work as submitted they asked us to cook/bake/recreate someone else’s recipe submission, then they held a potluck so we could all enjoy. Oh mmmmm!

and the yummies just kept coming!

I’m guessing there were 50 or 60 AFBA members there, maybe more. It was hard to get an accurate count as everyone was table hopping and there were a number of kids and dogs running around. It was a beautiful evening weather-wise, the heat and humidity broke earlier in the day and it was actually pleasant to be outside!

Tons of good eats, as one would imagine, and I got to make a recipe that I really enjoyed. You can see the original here, but I’ll put the recipe a bit further on as well. I didn’t get to meet Heather last night, but I sure liked her recipe (as did the rest of the guests – none to bring home!).

We were tasked with not changing the recipe we were sent, or making notes if we did, for purposes of the cookbook. The only thing I did differently was to add a bit of olive oil for sautéeing the onion and garlic. Other than that I stuck to the original and it was (she said humbly) awfully good. It is also really fast and easy and tasted dandy even though I’d only just made it.

I think it took all of maybe 1/2 hour start to finish, and the hardest part was figuring out how to transport a large pot of very hot soup across town. (Oh, I opted for the “wrap the pot in a big towel, drive slowly, and hope for the best” method. It worked fine and my car smelled great.) Honestly, this recipe is so easy it almost seems like cheating! Seriously, give this a shot and enjoy:

Midnite Chef’s Caldo de Pescado (Fish Soup)

here fishy fishy… mmmm!

3-4 tbsp olive oil (my addition)
1 small white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups stock (any flavor*)
2 cups water
1 bay leaf
1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 cup frozen vegetable mix (lima beans, carrot, peas)
1 hot pepper, sliced (**)
1/2 cup rice
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound firm white fish fillets (tilapia, bass, catfish***)
lime wedges for serving

(my only addition – Heat the oil in a soup pot.) Sauté the onion and garlic in a soup pot. Add stock and water, bay leaf, tomatoes, vegetables, hot pepper and rice. Bring to a rapid boil. Reduce to medium and simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust seasoning. Add the fish fillets and cook until done, about 5 minutes****. Serve with lime wedges (I used fresh limes from my Mexican lime tree, she bragged, but store-bought would do, of course).

Serves 4.
***********
*I used chicken stock but vegetable stock would be fine
**I used a red jalapeno sliced very thin, but you could skip this altogether
***I used basa because it is inexpensive, very tasty, and close to the recommended fish
****This may take a little longer depending on the thickness of the fillets. Took almost 10 minutes for the basa but it was still nearly frozen. So…

All you need “with” is a nice green salad and maybe some good bread. Mighty fine, thanks Heather!!

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