My first fish taco was in Santa Monica, California...because what good, middle-class girl from Cleveland, Ohio had ever heard of a fish taco? My sister, who lived in Los Angeles, drove me straight from the airport to some boardwalk stand, with a line a mile long, and made me try me try this culinary oddity.
I was skeptical. Tacos were GROUND BEEF...jeez, everyone knows that. Putting fish into a taco was weird. Possibly wrong. Potentially gross.
But, on the contrary! Fish tacos are delightful. They are light and slightly sweet. They smell like a perfect afternoon at the ocean-side. They are enhanced, but not outdone, by sour cream, salsa verde, or guacamole.
I had some very sad-looking frozen pollack fillets in my freezer. I had tried to dress them up as Dover Sole and Trout Amandine on other occasions, but I finally gave up. I bought pollack specifically because it is not over-fished, not farmed, and generally responsibly marketed, which attracted the responsible omnivore in me, but it is a totally boring fish varietal, which saddens the aspiring gourmand in me.
I decided to put the last two fillets to rest by making fish tacos. I didn't have a recipe. I didn't even have very much motivation. I just had some fish, some cabbage, and some tortillas.
And Great Scott! You can make an awesome dinner with not much more than those pathos-inspiring ingredients. Scour the internet. Bobby Flay has a good-looking recipe. As does Martha Stewart. My methods were slapdash at best, and if I can achieve such greatness without much effort, imagine what might come together if you actually try, under the direction of a bona fide TV expert??
The tacos are light. I steamed my fish, so I felt no guilt about having 3. Fish tacos often include cabbage which is a "superfood"...the high fiber, high-vitamin, high-mineral, low-calorie stuff practically guaranteed to make you live one hundred years. I paired mine with full-strength Greek yogurt, which tastes an awful lot like sour cream, but it's a little less fattening and has all of those beneficial bacterias that are supposed to cure all your ills.
Tell me a fish taco story if you've got a family-friendly one. 'Cause boy-howdy, are they good and I want to know about everyone's favorite.
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Ours are terribly bad for you, but delicious. Deep fried tortillas, panko battered whatever-fish and adobe mayo(Tyler Florence, perhaps?). I think some lettuce was thrown in there out of guilt.
ReplyDeleteSorry ADOBO sauce- 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup mayo, 3 chipotles in adobo sauce, lemon juice and salt & pepper to taste. It's really good on everything.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I think I see a plan forming for Mexican Night chez McSlore...
My folks came out for a visit - had fish tacos and scallop burritos and fell in love. But how to get that easily in Ohio? I'd been playing around and was able to give them an simple solution - Costco fish sticks. The trident fish sticks are made of pollock fillets (not flakes) and are TASTY.
ReplyDeletePu them in the oven to bake, then chop some cabbage, open a jar of tomatillo salsa, thin some sour cream out with lime juice (and add some salt and pepper and garlic powder for flavor) make some guacamole if you like, slice some limes up, dry fry corn tortillas in a cast iron skillet and you are good to go!
And yes, you can easily do all that while the fish is baking.
Then take a tortilla, place a fish stick in the center. Add some cabbage, a dollop of salsa, a good drizzle of sour cream and you've got a darn fine fish taco. (Add guacamole and/or a squeeze of lime if you'd like.)
Tasty, not expensive or too bad for you, it makes a happy week night dinner. Add tortilla chips and you can even fill up teenager.