I've long been fascinated by the idea of fish tacos. I was constantly tempted by the idea of Mexican-style fish but to me the combination of soft fish and crunchy taco seemed incongruous. That, though, was before I read that 'proper' Mexican tacos bear little resemblance to those crunchy folded shells we tend to buy in our supermarkets. In fact, so the experts tell me, tacos are meant to be soft. Corn tortillas, certainly, but soft, not crunchy. What a revelation! Suddenly fish tacos seemed to make perfect sense!
My recipe is largely made up, though I'm sure it is similar to others out there. What I do is this:
Slice fish fillets (I use tilapia - a sustainable and soft white fish with a lovely sweetness) into long 'fingers' and place them in a dish. Drizzle over some olive oil, a heavy-handed shake of ground cumin (we're talking here about 2 heaped tsp for about 300gm fish), some sea salt (a tsp I would say - you need a bit to bring out the cumin flavour) and a wee pinch of sugar (for similar reasons to the salt). Smear it all around so the fish is coated in cuminy oil, then squeeze over the juice of half a lime. Heat a fry pan (last night I used my new griddle pan which added a lovely charred quality - definitely will be doing that again) and cook the fish until it just flakes. Place into a serving dish/plate, breaking the fish fillets up into chunks/flakes and drizzle over the other half of lime juice. Scatter with plenty of chopped coriander and, if you fancy, some chopped red chilli. Serve in warmed, fresh corn tortillas* dolloped with chipotle mayonnaise** and some shredded lettuce and chopped avocado. Delicious - especially when served with a large pitcher of slushy margaritas or an ice-cold lager with lime.
We had this for dinner with friends last night but I had had too many of aforementioned margaritas to think to take a picture sorry! But it does look as good as it sounds, I promise.
* (I buy mine from Cool Chile Company online and they are totally unlike that 'certain' brand of bright yellow, stale, corn tortillas you buy in the shops. If you can't get access to good fresh ones online, I'd make your own and freeze 'em)
** Use either homemade mayo or a good quality bought one, add a tbsp of chipoltes in adobo and a small clove of minced garlic. Finish with a squeeze of lime and a pinch of salt.
My recipe is largely made up, though I'm sure it is similar to others out there. What I do is this:
Slice fish fillets (I use tilapia - a sustainable and soft white fish with a lovely sweetness) into long 'fingers' and place them in a dish. Drizzle over some olive oil, a heavy-handed shake of ground cumin (we're talking here about 2 heaped tsp for about 300gm fish), some sea salt (a tsp I would say - you need a bit to bring out the cumin flavour) and a wee pinch of sugar (for similar reasons to the salt). Smear it all around so the fish is coated in cuminy oil, then squeeze over the juice of half a lime. Heat a fry pan (last night I used my new griddle pan which added a lovely charred quality - definitely will be doing that again) and cook the fish until it just flakes. Place into a serving dish/plate, breaking the fish fillets up into chunks/flakes and drizzle over the other half of lime juice. Scatter with plenty of chopped coriander and, if you fancy, some chopped red chilli. Serve in warmed, fresh corn tortillas* dolloped with chipotle mayonnaise** and some shredded lettuce and chopped avocado. Delicious - especially when served with a large pitcher of slushy margaritas or an ice-cold lager with lime.
We had this for dinner with friends last night but I had had too many of aforementioned margaritas to think to take a picture sorry! But it does look as good as it sounds, I promise.
* (I buy mine from Cool Chile Company online and they are totally unlike that 'certain' brand of bright yellow, stale, corn tortillas you buy in the shops. If you can't get access to good fresh ones online, I'd make your own and freeze 'em)
** Use either homemade mayo or a good quality bought one, add a tbsp of chipoltes in adobo and a small clove of minced garlic. Finish with a squeeze of lime and a pinch of salt.
These sound soooo damn good! Funnily enough, I made fish tacos last week as well, though they weren't nearly as good as these sound. I particularly love the idea of the chipolte mayo and those icy margheritas. Mmmm.
ReplyDeleteWhile we were in the States, we ate a lot of tilapia and really liked it but I came across this article a little while ago which examines the health benefits (or absence of) and ecological implications of farmed tilapia (particularly the imported stuff): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/science/earth/02tilapia.html?pagewanted=all
How did you go with your music selections?
Oh what did you do for your fish tacos?! Do share - I'm loving the concept at the moment so definitely keen to try out other approaches.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link on tilapia - I'll have a read. Interestingly it's very much sold and marketed here as a sustainable alternative to the incredibly over-fished (and much prized though loathed by me) cod. It's also reasonably hard to find over here - you only get it at certain supermarkets which pride themselves on higher welfare standards, so I'm intrigued to hear about this article and the approach over there. I must do some more research into how and where they are farmed in the UK since my understanding was that they are farmed here. I find negotiating the issues around fish so much harder than meat since I really don't know much about fish production or catching...
Ah music was a lost cause in the end because I ran out of time to clean the house and go into town to do some music purchasing (and I just can't bring myself to use iTunes! hehe) But in the end we put a music channel on the TV on and mocked the awful music so that was fun too (one of Beyonce's current songs has the line "sucks to be you right now". Seriously? Sucks to be you?? Whatever happened to the poetry of music with lyrics that retained some mystery?? :-)
Hm. It seems they do farm tilapia in the UK, but the shop I buy from gets it from Zimbabwe. But they also claim that the building of the farm was a local development project which involved the building of a school for children and has given work to an otherwise empoverished area. Gargh. I try so hard to be an ethical shopper and then you come across conflicts like these are it's impossible to know what to do. The politics of food consumption make eating v difficult!
ReplyDeleteI coated the fish (flathead fillets) with semolina and then pan fried them, put them in soft small tortillas with sour cream and a salsa made from chili, lime, coriander, and tomato and then topped them with shredded lettuce, thinly sliced red cabbage, grated carrot and corn. I think I took a pic on my phone, I'll see if I can find it...
ReplyDeleteYes, I find fish politics tricky to navigate too. I try to only buy local, sustainable varieties but as that article points out even varieties that we're taught are okay can be problematic. I hadn't thought about the effects of farming practises on the nutritional outcomes before. Sigh.
Ooh they sound amazing! I'm definitely going to try that! Yum! Hope you can find that pic...
ReplyDeleteI've now downloaded the UK Marine Conservation Society's pocket fish guide to 'good' fish and will make more of an effort. I suspect I'm going to need to get fish delivered from a specialist since there is no fishmonger around these parts and while the supermarket is good, it's not stocking what I now want to buy. Sigh indeed.