Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Famous Fish Tacos

We’ve proclaimed ourselves the masters of Fish Tacos, so thought we’d share the secret recipe.
Fish – our favorite is Halibut, but we had Cod last night, and have enjoyed other flaky fish. We didn’t care for Talapia.
Cooking Spice – a homemade mix (all ground) of:

  • Cumin – 1 tsp
  • Coriander – 1 tsp
  • Smoked Paprika – 1/2 tsp
  • Red Pepper – 1/4 tsp
  • Salt – 1/8 tsp
  • Garlic powder – 1/8 tsp
This makes enough spice for several dinners. We grind all with a large mortar & pestle, and store the left-over spice in a tightly closed jar.
We pan sauté the fish in Olive Oil and maybe a teaspoon of the spice mix, until the fish flakes apart.
Tacos – We alternate corn and flour, but generally prefer flour tortillas “soft fried.” We use a 1/8-inch layer of Olive Oil in a large fry pan, and cook the tortillas until they are “not-quite” crispy. Drain on paper towels.
Vegetables – We almost always use chopped onion and cabbage. Usually red onion and green cabbage, but sometimes red cabbage and yellow onion. We’ve also substituted Arugula for the cabbage and it tastes great, but offers a different texture.
Crema/Sauce – We experiment with Cremas a lot. Last night we used:
  • 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
  • 1/2 cup Sour Cream
  • juice from half a lime
  • approximately 1/4-1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
  • grated 1/4 of a very large green apple (maybe 1/2 cup grated)
  • several splashes of a Tabasco-type hot sauce
  • a few grindings of salt
Other Cremas we’ve made (usually always with the base of sour cream/mayonnaise) have been garlic & lime; sweet red pepper sauce & onion; green onion & green olive. The possibilities are endless.
NOTES: We seldom measure anything (unless we’re baking, which we don’t do much). We experiment and substitute a lot. When in doubt, we think fewer elements are better than many. (For example, we’d rather have our fish tacos with fish, crema, cabbage, and onion, rather than a “normal” taco loaded with meat, beans, cheese, lettuce, onion, salsa, sour cream, black olives, jalapenos, tomatoes, and more.) We don’t worry about pairing any particular wine with any dish. We usually drink whatever wine we opened before dinner with whatever we end up cooking.