Mediterranean Mexican Fusion Fest!

There are plenty of signs of a burgeoning interest in Mediterranean fusion cooking,  with Mediterranean Mexican and Mediterrasian restaurants, cookbooks & recipes popping up everywhere, especially in California. In a sense, most Mediterranean cuisine is a fusion of many food cultures, so the more the merrier! Some traditional Mexican dishes are heavily influenced by Spain. And, some Mexican dishes are a slightly different take on a Spanish classic, such as mole dishes and Mexican paella.

If you are interested in a little history on Mexican cuisine I recommend this article from Lo Mexicano. And, I also recommend this book: Planet Taco, A Global History of Mexican Food, by Jeffrey Pilcher.

We're always up for trying something new, and our Mediterranean Mexican meal brought smiles to our faces and a resounding muy bien! One happy cook. One happy family.

For our starter, we prepared a 4 fork crunchy Mediterranean Mexican Chopped Salad from Epicurious.  We decided to forego the corn and avocado and added lime zest. I just love making a salad a little bit brighter and zippier with either lemon or lime zest.

The salad is coming together. 

Crunchy & Healthy Mediterranean Mexican Goodness

I have recently joined with community members that are doing fundraising projects for the family of the Mi Tierra restaurant. Sadly, Jorge and Dora's restaurant recently burned down and the family is doing everything to bring their fantastic Mexican food back to our community! At our meetings, we have enjoyed many yummy tostadas. With tostadas on the brain, I was inspired to create a tostada recipe with a bit of a Mediterranean twist. I checked out these two recipes: Mediterranean Tostadas & Tilapia Tostadas, and ended up with the below.

Mediterranean Spiced Talapia Tostada

1/2 cup flour (chick pea flour for Gluten Free)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp aleppo pepper
4 tilapia filets
4 Tbsp olive oil for frying
1 cup chopped romaine
1 chopped plum tomato
2 Tbsp chopped red sweet bell pepper
Lime juice from 1/2 lime
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 oz shredded cotija cheese
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1 Avocado, diced
1 Tbsp capers
8 corn four tortillas
olive oil for brushing on corn tortillas

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a ziplock bag. Drench the tilapia in the bag and fry the fish in olive oil (3 minutes or so on each side, until flaky). If you are worried about the low smoke point of olive oil, add a little butter to the pan. Cut the fish into small pieces and set aside. Combine romaine, tomato, pepper, olive oil and lime juice and set aside. In the meantime, heat oven to 350, brush the corn tortillas with olive oil and cook on under the broiler for 2-3 minutes on each side.

Now for the assembly. Serve two tortillas per person on a plate, layering first the fish, then the salad. Garnish with the cotija cheese, avocado, capers, cilantro and olive oil. Serve with a bottle of hot sauce.

Enjoy!