Baja Fish Tacos
Back in high school in the late 80’s I drove a 77 Datsun B-210 Hatchback. I actually don’t have a picture of it (somewhere I do probably), as we didn’t really take pictures back then. But it was the one below, only blue, and with a lot of dents. I could make it backfire so loud it sounded like gunfire, which high schools weren’t afraid of back then. Aside from my adonis like 6’2, 145 lb frame it was the biggest reason all the girls in high school were in love with me. It’s also the vehicle that took me to eat my first fish taco. Back then you had to make the drive down to Mexico to get fish tacos. They eventually made their way across the border into San Diego, and now you can get them all over the globe, but they originated in Baja.
You can’t live in San Diego and not love fish tacos. They actually stop you at the border patrol stations and make you taste them. If you don’t love them you get deported. To Canada.
Baja style fish tacos are breaded and fried, and topped with white sauce made up of mayo and sour cream, cabbage, pico de gallo, and hot sauce. Everyone has their own spin. But that’s basically it.
What You’ll Need -
• Fish! Use something white, flakey, and firm. Halibut, cod, mahi mahi, and tilapia all work.
• Shredded cabbage
• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 cup beer or soda water.
• 1 tsp baking powder
• vegetable oil for frying
• Pico De Gallo
• White sauce. Or in this case, chipotle crema (traditional white sauce is usually a combination of sour cream and mayo).
• Your favorite red hot sauce (Cholula, Tapatio, etc.).
• Corn tortillas
• Lime wedges
Start by making the batter. Combine the rice flour, baking powder, and beer in a bowl. Whisk until mixed together smoothly. Why rice flour? I’ve made them with all purpose flour, and the batter comes out kind of doughy. Rice flour is more fine, and so the batter comes out thinner, and more crisp. For me that works better on fish. As for the beer, use something you like to drink, but nothing too dark. You don’t want the chocolate or roasty notes you get from a stout. If you don’t want to use beer use soda water. The carbonation is what’s important. You could try Mountain Dew, but I would suggest drinking that in large doses instead. It will give you the energy to finish reading all my other recipes and telling your friends about them.
Now cut the fish into taco size slices. One piece should fit nicely into the size of corn tortillas you have.
If you want to make the pico de gallo yourself it’s easy. Just cut up some tomato, onion, and cilantro and mix together in a bowl. You can add some jalapeno if you want to give it a little kick, and squeeze a some lime over the top.
Cover the fish in batter. Gently place them into the oil, which should be at 375 degrees. Turn the fish as it cooks so until all sides are golden brown. 4-5 minutes.
When it’s done let it dry on a wire rack if you have one. Then start building the tacos. Add some shredded cabbage and the chipotle crema.
Top it off with pico de gallo, a squeeze of lime, and some hot sauce if you want to take it up a notch. The chipotle crema already has some heat, but if you’re using a more traditional white sauce some hot sauce would be good.
Now eat. You can worry about what to do with all that oil later. I would suggest using it to fry up a bunch of other stuff. Because fried food is healthy and delicious.