Friday, March 11, 2011

Fish Tacos for everyone!

Last night I made fish tacos for friends..... I was thinkin' I need a recipe for the restaurant in Panama since fish is so plentiful and ingredients to make tacos are so cheap.  Yeah, cheap....you can make this for a bunch of people for under 20 bucks.
You need:
tilapia (a mild, flaky whitefish. oh and it's really cheap)
corn tortillas

for salsa:
a couple tomatoes
a jalapeno
an onion
cilantro
garlic
lime juice (fresh is always best but I forgot them)

for white sauce (ALWAYS on a fish taco)
sour cream or yogurt
lime juice
cumin
chipotle peppers

a head of cabbage


I never buy salsa at the store and there's no reason you should either.  It's so simple to make and always taste better than the stuff that's been sitting in a jar.  Take all of the above ingredients and put in a food processor. BTW  I have 2 mini cuisinart food processors that I can not live without. You can buy them at Bed Bath and Beyond for about 30 each.  You can make so many things in these suckers, they are so invaluable. Anyway....for the salsa, just eyeball the ingredients, chop a couple tomatoes in half or thirds, half an onion, garlic, juice of a lime, throw in a bunch of cilantro and half a jalapeno (or more depending on your heat tolerance) You can also add green onions if ya want.  Blend. Add salt and pepper.  Salsa.
Ok that should have taken you less than 5 minutes.
Now....Put a nonstick pan on med hi heat with some oil . Add tilapia that's been seasoned with salt and pepper.  While its cooking, mix sour cream, lime juice, cumin and a couple of chipotle peppers in the food processor.  Taste it.  Add more cumin, lime juice, chipotle etc whatever it needs.
Flip fish.  Fish only takes a couple minutes on each side.


Typically in fish tacos, the fish is breaded and fried but tilapia gets crispy without the breading. If the filets break up when you flip them, no biggie. It's just tacos ;)
By the time you are done with the above white sauce, the fish should be done.  Next step, chop some cabbage.  Heat tortillas over a flame or sprinkle with water and place in the microwave for 20 seconds. 
Make an assembly line and round up the hungry freeloaders.  Dinner in 20 minutes and for under 20 bucks. And it's so damn good.  Want to make it better, make some margaritas from the jalapeno infused tequila recipe I posted and feel like you're in Mexico. 


2 comments:

  1. Yuuummmmy. These look really good but I'm scared to cook with fish. I don't know why, it just seems intimidating. Hook us up with some pointers please. ;)

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  2. Grrrrl, fish is so easy! Literally buy a mild whitefish, (ask your fish guy what's the freshest) tilapia, halibut, red snapper......soak it in salted water for ten minutes although that's not even an essential step. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and put some oil in a pan. Add butter if ya want it to taste more delicious. Cook the fish until it starts to brown....a couple minutes on each side. Then squeeze a lemon wedge over it. Just keep it simple, you CAN NOT F it up. I swear.

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