I seem to have opened up a Pandora's Box the other day when I looked at the Coyote Cafe cookbook. A Pandora's Box, but you know...without releasing all the evils of mankind.
In fact, I opened another Pandora's Box just now by reading a little bit about Pandora's Box. Did you know that it contained hope? I'd forgotten that grim little detail.
Good one. Anyway, my point is that there's plenty of interesting stuff in the Coyote Cafe book. For one thing, I wish that I had any aptitude or facility with baking at all, because some of the sweet stuff looks nummy: the White Chocolate Buttermilk Tart is where I would start, I think, there's a Rhubarb-Anise Crisp that might be alright, and an Almond Polenta Pound Cake as well...
But I guess I'm just going to list some targets that I may or may not ever get around to trying. It is interesting how much my tastes and skills have changed since I spent any time with this book: lots of things that I routinely skimmed past are now catching my eye. Beef with Smoked Oysters, for example, I'm sure used to gross me out, but now it sounds pretty tasty: you make a sauce out of beef stock, cumin, thyme, garlic, and pureed oysters (you strain it before serving). Then you wrap bacon around the steaks, cook 'em, then serve with the sauce and garnish with pico de gallo.
More about the fish recipes in a bit. I've got a bunch o' catfish sitting here and something needs to be done with them. How 'bout an almond-cornmeal crust and a smoked chile sauce...
UPDATE: In reality, I did a more Louisiana meets New Mexico thing: just rubbed catfish with cumin, coriander, cinnamon, allspice, garlic powder, walnut oil, a little adobo from the chipotle can, and celery salt. Then baked them for 15 minutes or so.
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