Cornmeal Crusted Dover Sole

 

This recipe was another creation by Lance to use whatever we had in our fridge/pantry to create an awesome meal.  I’d never had the fish dover sole before, but we had bought some frozen filets at Trader Joe’s a little while back to try them out. 

Lance crusted the fish in corn muffin mix and spices (he’s had that box of Jiffy in the cabinet since before I knew him…finally found a good use for it).  It turned out fantastic – crispy crust on the outside and flaky white fish on the inside.  I would definitely make this again.  Here’s the basic recipe (I don’t really have exact measurements on this one since I wasn’t the one cooking this meal…)

Cornmeal Crusted Dover Sole

Ingredients:

·        Dover sole filets (ours were frozen from Trader Joe’s)

·        3 eggs

·        Splash of milk

·        Lemon juice

·        Butter

·        Peanut oil

·        Jiffy corn muffin mix

·        Williams Sonoma Potlatch seasoning

·        Williams Sonoma Sriracha Kaffir Lime Rub

 

Directions:

1.  If using frozen fish, thaw it out.    

2. Mix the eggs, milk, and a squirt of lemon juice together in a shallow dish.  In a separate bowl, combine the corn muffin mix with a bit of the Potlatch and Sriracha seasonings.    

3. Heat up a mix of butter and peanut oil in a large skillet (the peanut oil has a higher smoke point, so it will keep the butter from burning).    

 

4. Dip the fish into the egg mixture, then into the corn mix and gently place in the skillet.  Our filets were pretty thin, so they cooked quickly.  Flip them to the other side and keep an eye on them so they don’t burn. 

5. Place on paper towels to soak up the excess oil, then they’re ready to serve!  We had ours with a simple salad.  

 

Vizcaya Restaurant & Tapas Bar – Tampa, FL

 

I heard about Vizcaya from Tasting Tampa’s Top 10 list of restaurants in the Carrollwood area.  I haven’t had one of their top ten restaurants fail me yet, so I was excited to see that Vizcaya had posted a deal on LivingSocial for $50 to spend for only $28 (you can still get the deal by clicking this link).   

Last weekend we went there for dinner.  Being a weekend, it was pretty crowded, but we got a table out on their patio without a wait. 

 

I started with a basil pear martini and Lance had a mojito.  My drink was sweet and refreshing – Lance’s was tasty, but could have just been lime and mint flavored water. 

Their crunchy bread was served with olive oil drizzled with balsamic, peppery romesco sauce, and garlic – If we had more of the dipping sauce, I probably would have finished the bread basket. 

We ordered the Datiles con Panceta (dates stuffed with Manchego cheese and Serrano ham, wrapped in bacon then fried), the Cazuelita de Conejo (wild rabbit, fire roasted peppers and mushrooms in Rioja wine sauce), and the Paella de Mariscos (jumbo prawns, scallops, grouper, calamari, mussels, and clams over saffron stewed Spanish Bomba rice). 

 

The dates were terrific – I would definitely order them again.  The flavor of the rabbit was very good, but unfortunately there were so many tiny hidden bones that it was pretty difficult to eat.  The paella tasted very authentic – $27 is a bit more than I'd normally spend on it, but with the LivingSocial coupon it was definitely worth it.  The rice was so good that we took the leftovers home even after we ate all the fish.  Overall a really wonderful meal and we went home with full bellies! 

Vizcaya Restaurant & Tapas Bar is located at 10905 N Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33618.  They are open 11:30am – 2pm and 5:30pm – 10pm Monday – Friday, 5:30pm – 10pm on Saturday, and closed on Sunday. 

Coppertail Brewing Co. – Ybor City

 

After our lunch at The Bricks, we visited Coppertail Brewing’s brand new tasting room.  We’re going to have to update our brewery map because so many new breweries keep popping up in the area!

Their slogan is “Florida Inspired. Tampa Brewed.”  They had several beers that incorporated citrus, but nothing overly sweet.  We’ve had a few of their beers before (their “Core 4” are bottled and available at many local liquor stores now – we even saw their Free Dive IPA at Trader Joe’s later that day when picking up groceries). 

Coppertail’s new tasting room officially opened March 6^th, and it sounds like they’ve had a busy couple of weeks since then.  For middle of the day on a Wednesday, it had a pretty good crowd. 

 

For the label art, they collaborated with independent artist Evan B. Harris, who created intricate and imaginative designs for each style of beer.   

The brewery’s décor is nautical industrial with lots of funky non-traditional decorations inspired by their labels.  For some reason they also incorporated a traditional confessional booth into the design.  I’m assuming has to do with their “Unholy Trippel”, which they describe as “sacrilegious hops, fruity & funky”. 

 

 

 

 

While you enjoy your beers, they have a 2-player Pac-Man table that lets you play retro arcade games for free (Lance looks pretty excited about this in the picture below...)  They also have the oversized Jenga and a pile of other board games like you find at most breweries. 

 

As far as the beers go, I enjoyed the Frank and the Giant Peach “Floridaweisse” and their Night Swim porter best.  And even though I’m not big on IPAs, the orange and grapefruit in their Citrus IPA made it more my style. 

They offer tours Thursday – Sunday for $7, which includes a behind-the scene look of the operations, a beer, and a souvenir glass.  It was the wrong day of the week for us to try the tour out, but a glass with their logo would be pretty cool!   

Coppertail Brewing Co. is located at 2601 E 2nd Ave, Tampa, FL 33605  (right across from IKEA) and is open 4pm – 11pm Monday – Thursday, 4pm – 12am Friday, 2pm – 12am Saturday, and 12pm – 7pm on Sunday.