Fish Tacos

Easy and delicious!

Ingredients:

A couple of pounds of thick Fish fillets (Grouper, Cod, Mahi-mahi or your favorite)
flour tortillas, either soft taco or fajita size (NOT BURRITO SIZED)
head of cabbage
one medium white onion
two fresh limes
two jalapeños
a large, or a couple medium, ripe tomatoes
a bunch of fresh cilantro
a couple cloves of garlic
8 oz. sour cream
dash of hot Mexican chili powder
black pepper
ground cumin
olive oil

Step one:

Zest both limes, reserve in a small bowl.  Juice both limes, save juice and pulp separately.

Next, marinade the fish fillets for a minimum of 1 hours, or overnight:

Seed and dice one of the jalapeños, dice one garlic clove, a teaspoon or two of the lime juice, grind black pepper, and add 1/2 tsp. ground cumin.  Add a few tablespoons of olive oil, stir, add fish fillets, turn to coat, cover and refrigerate.

Lime crema:

In a non-reactive glass or ceramic bowl, put all the lime zest and pulp.  Add the sour cream, stir together to mix.  Then add about 4 tablespoons of lime juice, stir until thoroughly combined.  It will look a little soupy, but don't worry, as it rests in the fridge, it will thicken up.  Cover tightly and refrigerate.

Homemade salsa:

 

First, finely dice the ripe tomato, and put in bowl.  With a potato masher or large spoon, mash about half the bowlful.  Finely dice about half the white onion, seed and dice the jalapeños chop about 1/2 the cilantro leaves.  Add a tbsp. of the lime juice, stir well.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  You can add:  hot Mexican chili powder, black pepper, salt.  Cover tightly and refrigerate.

Mexislaw *:

Remove outer leaves from cabbage, wash, chop in half, remove core.  With a box grater, grate half the head, put in a large bowl.

Now, grate 1/2 the onion, and add that to the bowl.  Chop the other half of the cilantro leaves, and addthat to the slaw too.  Add a scant tsp of lime juice (keeps the cabbage green), grind some black pepper, and mix well.  Cover tightly and refrigerate.

Cooking the fish:

I hate tough, chewy fish.  So what I do, is use the grill to add flavor, and I finish cooking on the stove.  Light your grill and let it get plenty hot (at least 400).   Put the fillets on, and let cook for about 2 minutes:

Turn them over, spoon on a little marinade, close lid.  Give them 2 more minutes.

Remove from grill,  put a little oil in a frying pan on medium heat.  When pan is warm, add fish.  Cook for a few more minutes, spoon remaining marinade over fish.

Turn, when it starts to flake, remove from pan.  Cook rest of marinade until it reduces down.  Add fish back to pan and remove from heat. 

Assembly:

Follow direction on package of flour tortillas to warm, allow 2 per person to start.  Take garnishes and sauces out of refrigerator.

Put tortilla on plate, and put some of the fish in the tortilla:

Add some of the slaw, 

Spoon salsa on top:

Spoon some crema on top:

Roll the soft tacos as you would a burrito.

EAT!!!

I like sparkling water with these, or beer.  Your choice.   If you have hungry guests, they can nibble chips and salsa while they wait.

*  I don't know what else to call this.  All the recipes for Baja style fish tacos I have ever seen, use cabbage and not lettuce.  I have experimented, and have found that combining the cabbage, onion and cilantro is less to do during assembly.  It also tastes good as a side dish with anything else you might grill the next day (skirt steak with chimichurri? Not for me, obviously, but it would go well with the slaw).