Fish Tacos

The first time I heard of fish tacos was when we were living in Hawaii.  Something about the sound of it made me want to throw up a little bit.  

It's not that I don't like fish.  I don't have a lot of luck cooking it; it doesn't seem to ever taste good when I do but I've ordered fish in restaurants before and enjoyed it.  Just the idea of fish being in a taco seemed to be a little ridiculous to me.  (If you invented the idea, I don't mean to offend you.)  They seem to be a big deal lately though.  My dad and Jan posted a recipe on their website recently and they seem to be featured in quite a few restaurants now-a-days.  I put them on my to-do list for the future, but I thought it might be further in the future.   And my plan was in place until a couple weeks ago when my dad and Jan were here, they took us to Taco Surf and I actually tasted a fish taco.  

It probably has something to do with my inability to make a decision.  Give me a menu, in a restaurant, with more than 4 choices and I will end up taking the better part of a day trying to decide what to get and then finally ask the waitress/waiter what is good.  (Yeah, I'm that girl!)  That's about how it was going that night,  but instead of asking the waitress, I listened to everyone at the table and they all seemed to be getting the fish tacos.   What's a girl to do but just follow the crowd?  I know, I know, right off a cliff.  But they had been there before and said they were good and I trust them most of the time. ;)  

Needless to say, it was a pleasant experience.  I liked the tacos so much I decided to make them at home.  And they seemed to be right in line with the eating-healthy-phase we are now going through.  Really, there isn't much of a fish taste, if you are worried about that.  They just taste really fresh and delicious.  Not at all what I was picturing.   My kids even ate them.  Yeah, you heard me.  My picky eaters!  After cooking the fish and shredding it, Calvin started stealing it off the plate.  I really wasn't expecting that.  He thought it was chicken.  Don't tell him, mmkay?  Because we will be eating this again and I don't want him to know! ;)

Taco Surf served their tacos with a sort of pico de gallo with avocado so I kind of did that with a creamy cilantro dressing to drizzle over.  Sort of inspired by the Cafe Rio Dressing but if you want it to taste more like Cafe Rio Dressing, THIS one is more like it.

Fish Tacos

1/2 recipe corn tortillas or you can buy them.

12 oz Tilapia

1/4 cup corn flour (I used the same flour I used to make the tortillas)

2 T olive oil

salt/pepper to taste

lettuce or coleslaw mix

purple cabbage sliced fine (optional)

1 recipe pico de gallo with avocado (below)

1 recipe creamy cilantro dressing (below)

Pico de Gallo with Avocado

1 tomato, diced

1/2 avocado, diced

1/8 cup red onion, diced

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1 tsp sugar

1/4-1/2 tsp salt to taste

juice of 1/2 -1 lime to taste

Creamy Cilantro dressing

3 T sour cream

3 T milk

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

juice from 1/2 lime

Combine ingredients for Pico de Gallo with Avocado and set aside. Combine ingredients for cilantro dressing in blender and set aside.  Heat a skillet over med-high heat.  Add olive oil.  Salt and pepper fish and cover both sides with cornflour.  Cook over med-high heat until done, about 3-5 minutes on each side.  (cook or warm tortillas while cooking the fish.) 

I decided to shred the meat, but you could just cut into chunks to fit tortilla.  

Serve fish over tortilla with lettuce, cabbage, salsa and sauce.

 Makes about 8 fish tacos (with 5-6" tortillas)



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