Fish Tacos a la Bobby Flay...sort of

The nice thing about cooking (as opposed to baking) is that it's not an exact science. Substitutions are allowed when cooking that help to customize recipes to your own liking. Such is the case with Bobby Flay's Fish Taco recipe presented in an episode of Throwdown. I have never had Fish Tacos before, but have seen them on numerous Food TV shows, so I was curious. When I checked Bobby Flay's recipe I was intimidated: tomatillo salsa from scratch, slaw with scratch dressing, guacamole--also from scratch, and mango relish--once more from scratch. Though delicious, I'm sure, it just wasn't practical for a tired mother of three at dinner time. I decided to go ahead with the recipe, but with substitutions to make it more manageable.

Bobby used snapper in his recipe. I was adamant to use snapper. The grocery store I frequent sold whole snapper and wouldn't filet it for me because there were too many bones. Luckily, they did have prepackaged snapper filets. We removed only a few bones prior to cooking and no one complained of bones while eating. We spiced the snapper with whatever was handy in the kitchen pantry (i.e., garlic powder, onion, powder, seasoned salt, paprika, cayenne, etc.) and grilled the fish.

I purchased one bag of pre-shredded green cabbage and one bag of pre-shredded red cabbage and mixed half and half in a bowl. I used Kraft coleslaw dressing until the cabbage was coated. This added a wonderfully creamy aspect to the tacos, as well as a crunch. I don't think the recipe suffered at all with this substitution.

I used a container of fresh salsa, the kind you purchase in a plastic tub in the deli section. I find it has a fresher, homemade flavour, while the bottled stuff tastes like chunky ketchup. I chose mild, because I find the medium too spicy.

I didn't substitute for the guacamole. My recipe is simple: a whole avacado, mashed; half a medium red onion, diced, the juice of a lime, kosher salt and pepper to taste. The result is so creamy and just a little spicy (because of the onions). We like to eat the guacamole plain on corn chips at my house, its so popular.

Bobby used soft taco shells. His opponent used fried taco shells (hard). I bought flour tortillas for the soft and a package of Taco Bell hard shells (for the kids because they like the crunch). To assemble, I put the fish in first, then the slaw, then the salsa then guacamole. The result was interesting. Usually, taco night winds up tasting like sloppy joes in taco shells. This was a nice change. The snapper was flavourful, the slaw creamy, the salsa tangy and the guacamole spicy, slightly sour (from the lime) and with another dimension of creaminess. Overall, this is a great recipe. If you decide to go whole hog and try Bobby's recipe, or my shortened version, let me know.

• Throwdown with Bobby Flay Fish Tacos

Buddy Valastro's Red Velvet Cake

Cake Boss is a laugh to watch. I love the personalities, but mostly, I love watching the cakes being decorated. Everybody raves about Buddy's Red Velvet Cake. Up until a few years ago, I'd never known what Red Velvet Cake was. Rumour has it, Red Velvet Cake was popular at wartime when ingredients - such as cocoa - were rationed and in short supply. People boiled beets or used food colouring to enhance the chocolatey colour (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_velvet_cake for more). My family, especially my husband, was curious about the flavour of Red Velvet Cake and so I began to experiment with recipes.

Buddy's recipe is not the first recipe I've tried, but its certainly the best. I'll admit that the first time I tried it, the flavour was bang on, but the texture was lacking. This is because I neglected to bring all ingredients to room temperature before mixing. I've made the same recipe three times since and each time has been better than the last. Buddy's Red Velvet Cake recipe is by far the BEST cake I've ever baked. EVER!

Buttercream frosted Red Velvet Cake

I've used this recipe for both layer cakes and cupcakes and it works well each and every time. The cake is moist and faintly chocolatey, but not at all sweet. The link I've provided pairs the cake with it's traditional cream cheese icing. The first time I made the icing, I used a brick of light Philedelphia Cream Cheese and didn't care for the tartness of the cream cheese in the icing. The last two times I made it I used a traditional butter cream (link also provided) and enjoyed the cake much more. To make the buttercream even creamier, I use whipping cream instead of milk in the recipe.

One tip is to watch for baking time. Each oven works differently. Buddy uses industrial ovens to bake his. I've found that convection ovens do not work well for baking. When you bake this as a cake, underbake it by 5 to 7 minutes and then test with a toothpick to see if it is done. If it is not done, continue to bake in 5 minute increments until a toothpick comes out clean. When I use this recipe for cupcakes I use a pan that makes small-to medicum sized cupcakes. I purchase medium to large cupcake cups (depending on the make) and fill each with a standard ice-cream scoop-sized dollop of batter. I cut the baking time in half and continue to bake at 5 minute increments until the toothpick comes out clean.

• Buddy's Red Velvet Cake Recipe 
• Traditional Buttercream Frosting

About My Test Kitchen

I love to bake. I love to cook. It stands to reason that my favourite go-to channel is Food-TV. Some of the recipes I've seen look so amazing, I want to know what they taste like. My vow is to chronicle my journey here. I promise to follow the recipes as closely as possible, to reveal where I've deviated, and to describe the results - full disclosure.

If you have ever tried any of the Food Network's recipes and had unbridled success or horrible failure, I'd love to hear about it.

And now, on to the first recipe...