Bunuelos and flounder

Tonight's dinner was me making due with what I had in my fridge. I had a bag of frozen flounder, some canned corn relish, tons of broccoli, and bunuelos I started and never finished for our Cinco de Mayo party last week.

Let's start with the stir-fried broccoli.

The recipe called for 8 oz. of broccoli thinly sliced, then added to a tablespoon of olive oil and sauteed for four minutes before adding a tablespoon of soy sauce and serving.

Very easy. But it also tasted rather salty to me. My kids loved it (but they do like salt). I, on the other hand, thought it would have tasted better sauteed in olive oil and garlic.

The fish was my favorite part of the meal. I lined two baking pans with tin foil to make clean up easy, and then laid the fish in one row over the tin foil. I didn't measure the olive oil, but I generously waved the bottle over them. I like to buy the flavored extra virgin olive oil, and this one was cilantro and onion. So yummy. But regular olive oil would work just as well.

On top of that I sprinkled crushed sea salt. Finally I scattered about a tablespoon of corn relish over the fish. I made the corn relish, which you could do, or just cook up some corn and bell peppers to sprinkle over the fish.

I put the whole mixture in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F. It came out smelling wonderful and my kids loved it.

I served the whole thing with rice, and the plates made a beautiful presentation, but I forgot to take any pictures before the kids demolished them. Sorry, still getting used to this whole photographing every step thing.

On to dessert. The one thing I usually get right in a meal is dessert. But remember the post about the koi cupcakes? I'm not so big on looks. It's all about taste.

So bunuelos are little Mexican fritters. You make the dough, refrigerate it, then  divide it up and fry it.

For some reason the recipe I was following had me flatten my bunuelos into a disk and then make an indentation with my thumb. Other recipes I've checked leave the whole thing in a ball, but I thought, "Okay, I'll do what I'm told."

They fried up nicely. Floated to the top and turned a nice golden color when done, just like the recipe said they would.

But then I ran into a problem. I spent the weekend baking for a wedding reception, and I used every last teaspoon of white sugar. Wow. No cook should ever be without white sugar. I figured, not a problem, I'll just use my brown sugar.

It's a problem. The brown sugar didn't stick to the bunuelos. At all. I even tried smashing it on.

But I carried on with the recipe and poured honey over the top and they were super tasty. Just not super pretty. I'm not showing you the final picture because on camera they look like chicken nuggets. And, well, they're not.

I don't think I'd make them again unless it's for a party. They were a lot of work. It did, however, make 48 of them. My kids will be taking bunuelos to lunch for the rest of the week.

Have a great day!

Tastefully,

Tamara