Fish Taco Night

Has anyone noticed that it was impossible to get a decent apple in 2010? Onions also seemed very hit and miss, many past their prime or moldy. Lately I am starting to feel like that about fish. I generally buy mine frozen as we are "more than an hour from the ocean" in Tucson. The last frozen tilapia we ate had a definite ammonia tang. Last nights cod used for the tacos that follow lacked flavor except some bites that had flavor that was off.

I'm guessing these fish were caught (or harvested) in 2010, the year of questionable groceries.

Last night I had a guest cooks in the form of Carl Gulliver slicing the fish, making the sauce (even though he hates mayo) and taking pix and Veronica Lodge making the batter and helping fine tune the salsa.

Fish Tacos

For the sauce;

key "Mexican" limes
mayonnaise
1 Serrano chili, finely minced.
dried Mexican oregano

Mix together about a cup of mayo and the juice of three limes. It should be a fairly thin sauce. If necessary, thin with milk. Add the minced chili and oregano to your taste

For the batter;

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 t salt
1 not dark, not hoppy beer (I used Trader Joe's fake Corona, perfect at $.84 for one bottle)

For the fish;

Some kind of innocuous white fish that doesn't scream "I'm skate" or some such thing. Tilapia and cod work fine.

tortillas (I used small corn ones)
cabbage cut into shreds

We made the sauce, shredded the cabbage, mixed the batter and made some delightful salsa (tomatoes, onions, lime juice, cilantro, garlic, Serranos, olive oil, salt) before digging into the frying of the fish.

The salsa posing with the cod

The shredding of the cabbage

The batter seemed awfully thin per the recipe above but we thought perhaps it would result in a tempura-like outer crispiness.

The dipping of the fish in the batter

In hindsight, we should have added flour to the batter. A thicker coating would have been more authentic and satisfying.

And then into the oil until done (I was timing 4 minutes);

And onto the draining rig of an upturned cooling rack on paper towels on a baking sheet.

To put it all together; heat a tortilla over the flame of a stove burner (here we do it over a high flame, turning often), put on a piece or two of fish, a bit of sauce, some cabbage and eat.

Yum!

Shrimp13