Secondi di Pesce (fish dishes)

Fish Tacos

We love Mexican food and we love fish, so I wanted to make fish tacos. I looked at many recipes, but many did not appeal to me because the fish was breaded and/or served with a white sauce. But then I found Pati Jinich’s recipe for Rodrigo-Style Fish. That recipe seemed very nice because of the green salsa. I based my fish tacos on that recipe and they turned out great. Here’s what I did…

Ingredients

For about 9 tacos, serves 2 or 3 for dinner

450 grams (1 lb) cod fillet or other white fish

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp chipotle powder

flour for dusting

oil for frying

For the salsa

white and light green part of 3 scallions, thinly sliced

4 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro

juice of 1 lime (about 2 Tbsp)

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 jalapeño, minced (seeded to reduce the heat)

1 tsp Maggi seasoning (or soy sauce)

salt to taste

For serving

corn tortillas

black beans

sour cream

shredded cabbage

guacamole

Instructions

In a small bowl, combine 3/4 tsp salt with 1/2 tsp of chipotle powder, and stir to mix.

Cut 450 grams of cod into pieces and season on all side with the salt and chipotle mixture.

Allow the fish to marinate for at least one hour. I vacuum sealed the fish to speed up the marinating, as I was going to cook the fish sous-vide. This is an optional step.

To make the salsa, combine all the ingredients in a bowl…

…and stir to mix. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt. Allow the salsa to sit for at least an hour to allow the flavors to blend.

I cooked the cod sous-vide at 48C/118F for 20 minutes as that ensures fish that is very juicy. This is an optional step that you can skip.

Pat the fish dry with paper towels…

…and dust with flour. Shake off any excess flour.

Heat a generous amount of oil (about half a centimeter or a quarter inch of oil) in a non-stick frying pan. When the oil is very hot, add the fish.

If you cooked the fish sous-vide, cook it very briefly, just to give it some color on all sides. Otherwise, cook the fish until it is just cooked through.

The drawback of cooking cod sous-vide is that it will flake very easily and may fall apart if you are not very careful.

When the fish is done, allow any excess oil to drain away on paper towels.

Serve the fish with the salsa, warm corn tortillas, guacamole, shredded cabbage, warm black beans, and sour cream.

Let everyone construct their own tacos to their liking.

15 thoughts on “Fish Tacos”

  2. Stefan, very nice! I love fish tacos, and I like the simplicity of your dish, but it looks like it packs. TON of flavor. I’ll need to take a stab at your green salsa 🙂

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  4. Well, tacos are not so big Down Under: where I live anyways 🙂 ! But I really like this and shall incorporate in a menu soonest . . . just not with a bottle of anything ‘Maggi’ on the table: 0ne of my soys will ‘fit’ perfectly 🙂 !! Like your ‘construction’ . . .

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    1. I was surprised to see Maggi in the recipe, which is easily available around here but I hadn’t used it for more than a decade. But apparently it is used a lot in Mexico.

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  7. Lovely recipe. Real fish tacos as in Mexico are never breaded, they are cooked very similar to yours. I would add a bit more spice to kick it up a bit but then I am a huge spice fan.

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