Aah, the taco. Where do I even begin to describe how my love affair with those little envelopes of delicious began…
Growing up, taco night was a big, and I mean BIG deal for me. It meant a table filled with possibilities. Did I want cheese (duh, even then I knew when it comes to cheese, the answer is always yes), did I want tomatoes, or maybe lettuce, or sour cream? Or perhaps just a crunchy shell and a pile of richly spiced ground beef. Needless to say I was a happy camper. The way all the flavours came together – it just blew my 11 year old brain.
So imagine my amazement later in life when I realized tacos could be soooo much more than what Old El Paso told you they could be on those bright yellow taco-kit boxes! I realized you didn’t always have to use ground beef and that little packet of taco seasoning – you could potentially put any assortment of flavours, in any sort of tortilla, top with it with whatever you fancy, and have an easy and scrumpitous meal.
From there, things just sort of steam rolled – until one day, I found myself seriously considering how I could make opening my own taco themed food truck possible.
Well, unfortunately for the time being I am taco-foodtruck-less, however I am not taco-recipe-less.
Daniel and I make fish tacos at least once a month – more like once a week during the summer months (as much as I love Canada, we do get a little short-changed on our summers). I like to think that together, we have truly perfected our recipe. It really is a thing of beauty and I am just dying to share it with as many people as I can.
Now this recipe may, at first glance, seem extremely involved and time consuming, but really it’s just a matter of chopping everything up and tossing it together. When you have two people doing it, you can bang it out in no time!
Of course, one of the great things about tacos is that you can adjust what goes in them to suit your own flavour cravings. Feel free to switch up any part of this recipe if you’re not on board with what I’ve chosen to include (it took me years to even be in the same room with cilantro, let alone allow it any where near my plate).
**You Will Need**
For the Fish:
> 3-4 Tilapia filets (skin, bones, etc removed. serves 4-6 – you can adjust amount of fish accordingly)
> 1 jalapeno pepper
> 1 shallot
> 2 cloves of garlic
> 1 lime
> pinch of italian seasoning mix
> pinch of red pepper flakes
> a good glug of olive oil
> salt and pepper to taste
For the Pico de Gallo:
> 1 jalapeno pepper
> 1 pint grape tomatoes (we usually use a package with mixed colours, like orange and yellow as it adds a nice pop to it)
> 1 clove garlic
> 1/4 of a red onion
> 1 handfull of fresh parsley or cilantro (whatever you have on hand or prefer)
> 1/2 lime
> salt and pepper to taste
For the Gaucamole:
> 1 ripe avocado
> 1 clove garlic
> 1/4 red onion
> 1/2 lime
> small handful of cilantro (optional)
> salt and pepper to taste
For the toppings (optional):
> 1/4 of a head of green cabbage
> 1 red chili
> 1/2 lime
> cilantro
> shredded cheese
> non-fat plain greek yogurt
> and don’t forget 12 small tortillas (we like to use La Tortilla Factory’s corn tortillas, they even have flavoured ones which are amazing!)
Alrighty! First things first – the fish. Grab your cast iron skillet (or, if you don’t have one, any frying pan will do really). Add a few glugs of oil to the pan, and preheat to a medium heat.
Begin by thoroughly rinsing and drying your fish – and placing it on a tray or in a bowl. Next, start finely chopping your jalapeno (seeds removed), shallot and garlic. Spread chopped mixture over the fish. Splash a good amount of oil and freshly squeezed lime juice over top of the fish. Then sprinkle each filet with a few good pinches of italian spice, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Massage all of this lovely goodness into your fish, making sure to coat each piece nicely. Place each filet into preheated pan, and move on to making your yummy toppings (make sure you don’t loose any of that ‘marinade’ you just made for your fish, scoop out all the little bits left at the bottom of the tray and plop them right back onto the fish).
When cooking the fish, try not to move it around very much, as this may cause the fish to break apart and be more difficult to flip. Depending on the thickness of your filets, each side should take about 5-8 minutes or so. When it’s done the fish will be opaque in the centre, and will be slightly firm and springy to the touch. Cover fish and set aside until ready to eat.
just chopping some things
For your Pico de Gallo, you’ll want to start with my least favourite part of this whole process – chopping and de-seeding the tomatoes. It’s important to get rid of the seeds and liquid inside the tomatoes, otherwise you end up with a watery mess. Slice tomatoes in half, scoop out the seeds, and finely dice tomatoes – put this into a serving bowl. Next finely dice the red onion, garlic, parsley and jalapeno (seeds also removed). Add those to your bowl. Squeeze the juice of one lime over the works, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir it all up.
For your gaucamole, carefully cut your avocado in half, remove the pit and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Finely chop your garlic, onion and cilantro – add to the bowl. Squeeze juice of one lime into the bowl, and season with salt and pepper. Mash everything together with a fork until desired consistency (I like to leave it a big chunky).
Finally, as a last garnish I like to make a crunchy-cabbage-slaw-type-thing. Finely slice up the cabbage into thin strips and put into a bowl. Chop up about 3/4 of your red chilli (you may wish to remove seeds if you don’t want a lot of spice, but I usually like to leave mine in),and throw in with the cabbage. Dress with as much lime juice, chopped cilantro, salt and pepper as you’d like. You may wish to warm your tortillas in the oven or microwave for about ten minutes or so, but it’s not necessary.
Now comes the fun part! We like to serve this meal as a buffet style. We put everything out on the counter and each person can dress their tacos however they like (of course I load mine up with everything in sight). For the fish, just gently tear it apart into bite size chunks and serve on a cutting board, or straight from the pan. Everything else can just be served right in the bowl you mixed it in.
Viola! I know it seems like a lot of stuff, but I promise it’s really easy and definitely worth the little extra work.
make sure you have wine with your meal – it’s essential.
**A Few Notes**
> you may notice that we also used shrimp as well – we happened to have some on hand that we wanted to use up and just ate them on the side 🙂
> we also adjusted the amount few things since there we had seven hungry people to feed (we doubled the guac recipe because well – everyone loves guac).
Levi wanted to help too – he does love his fish tacos
Happy fish taco-ing everyone – time for me to go watch the Maple Leafs kick some butt!
Girl Eats World 