Fish Tacos
Behold the greatest lesson in the pursuit of good fish tacos: the milk bath. By allowing your fish fillets to soak in milk for 10-15 minutes, the milk proteins bind with the chemical compounds in fish that tend to give it that extra “fishy” flavor or smell (especially if you aren’t dealing with fresh-out-the-water fish here). The result is brighter, juicier, cleaner tasting fish that won’t dry out when you cook it up. The most readily available meaty white fish for me in the Nordics is Cod, but this would also be good with Flounder, Mahi Mahi, or even Tilapia. Most of this cooking is prep work - chopping, making sauces, and preparing for dredging your fish - actual cook time is about 10 minutes.
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10-12 good corn (preferably) or flour tortillas, warmed up in a nonstick pan and kept in a towel
½ cup (1.2dl) finely chopped green or white cabbage
For the pico de gallo:
Ripe tomatoes, either 2 medium or 5-10 cherry depending on what is available for you, seeded and diced fine
1 small red onion, peeled and diced fine
1 clove garlic, minced
½ cup roughly chopped cilantro or flat leaf parsley
1 jalapeño, sliced fine (optional)
Pinch of salt to taste
For the chipotle mayo:
¼ cup (60ml) mayonnaise or greek yogurt if you don’t like mayo
½ cup (1.2dl) sour cream or creme fraiche
Juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp (30ml) chipotle powder to taste
Pinch salt
Few grinds black pepper
For the fish:
¼ cup (60ml) fine-milled flour, like baking or pastry flour
¼ cup corn meal
2 tsps (10ml) chili powder
1 tsp (5ml) coarse salt
Few grinds black pepper
½ cup (1.2dl) whole milk or enough to bathe your fish fillets
¼ cup (60ml) peanut oil, plus a splash more for greasing pan
Spoon of butter
1lb (450g) skinless fish fillets, preferably Cod, Flounder, Mahi Mahi or a nice meaty white fish, freshest is best but defrosted frozen fillets work in a pinch, cut into strips about the length of your tortillas
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Take your fish out of the refrigerator and gently rinse under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Cut your fillets as needed to be about 2 inches (5cm) wide along the grain, and cut across the grain of the fish into strips about the length of your tortillas. These often somewhat fall apart when cooking and that’s fine, so don’t stress the length too much.
In a wide shallow dish, submerge your fillets in milk while you prepare the rest of the tacos, but don’t leave them in longer than 15 minutes (just take out and place on a plate if you need more time).
Prep your pico de gallo, combining all chopped ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.
Prep your chipotle mayo, whisking your mayo (or yogurt substitute) with your creme fraiche until smooth, then adding your spices to taste. This should have a nice smoky flavor of chipotle, and the longer it sits the more the chipotle flavor will come through. But don’t skimp on the spices here. Set aside.
Chop your cabbage and set aside.
In a large wide dish, combine your flour, corn meal, chili powder, salt, and pepper.
Depending on how many people I’m serving, I like to heat my tortillas now, one by one, in a warm nonstick pan over low heat. If doing corn tortillas, I add a tiny drizzle of peanut oil to the pan first, but if using flour tortillas I use a dry pan. Flip to warm both sides and wrap warm tortillas in a towel.
Take fish filets from milk (or if on a plate already, gently rinse them in the milk bath again so they are moist), letting the milk drip off so they aren’t dripping wet. Dredge each fish fillet in your flour mixture, making sure to coat all sides thoroughly but not be too clumpy. You want a nice sufficient flour coating here. Place gently on a plate and toss out that milk ASAP.
Heat peanut oil on medium high in a large frying pan until it shimmers (now might also be a good time to crack a window). Add butter to your pan and swish around to evenly coat. As it bubbles, add your fish filets to pan in one layer (do batches if you need) and let sit, undisturbed, on medium heat for 3-4 minutes until nice and brown. Using a spatula, gently turn your fillets over to brown the other side for 1 minute. The fish should release from the pan at this point, but if they have reluctantly stuck, it’s ok - even broken up fish pieces will taste great in your tacos.
After 1 minute, move fish filets to a paper towel lined plate and sprinkle with coarse salt.
Assemble tacos - I like spooning a thin layer of chipotle mayo onto the whole tortilla, adding my fish, then assembling cabbage, pico de gallo, more mayo, and a sprinkle of cilantro and black pepper.
Got Leftovers? Refrigerate all your ingredients separately and reheat fish pieces in a baking dish or baking sheet on 175C/350F for 10 minutes, they crisp up beautifully and make excellent breakfast tacos.
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