Baja Fish Tacos Recipe

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Growing up in San Diego we got to eat great fish tacos whenever. The best ones came from Rosarito or Ensenada, Mexico. Beer battered white fish on a fresh tortilla and some simple fixings. Now living on the East Coast, we've had to make our own. These are pretty close. The essential ingredient is a good corn tortilla. On the East Coast, good quality can be hard to find. You can use standard grocery store bought corn tortilla and they will be ok, but not great. We've made them by hand, but it can be a messy and sometimes frustrating proposition. We've order raw corn tortillas from Mexgrocer.com. The tortillas come from San Diego. Not the most local friendly way to eat, but good tortillas are key. They freeze well, and taste incredible. A little larger than what you'd get in Mexico, but it's what we've settled on.We've been able to find the queso fresco (fresh cheese) here and there. It's a simple, salty cheese that crumbles easy. You can make it homemade and it's pretty good. Whenever we find it, we buy a bunch and freeze it. It holds up well.

Baja Fish Tacos (8 tacos)

Ingredients

1/2lb. white fish (we used cod)
1/2 lime
1 tsp red chile powder
1 tsp garlic salt

batter

1 tsp red chile powder
1 tsp garlic salt
1 cup all purpose flour
1 bottle dark beer

fixings

corn tortillas
pico de gallo salsa
queso fresco
chipotle lime mayo
red cabbage slaw
guacamole
shredded mexican cheese (optional)
sliced green onions
arbol chile hot sauce (optional)

Fish Preparation

First I like to pull the salsa, guacamole, chipotle lime mayo, slaw and hot sauce together. These recipes are all in the basics section of the blog.

Cut the fish into approx. 16 small pieces of equal size and sprinkle on both sides with 1/2 lime, 1tsp red chile powder and 1 tsp garlic salt. Let marinate in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Combine batter ingredients. Slowly add the bottle of beer. You'll use almost the whole bottle, but not quite. You want the batter to be about the same thickness as pancake batter.

Heat 2 inches of vegetable oil on med/high in a deep skillet/pan

Dip the fish pieces in the batter and then into the oil. Fry until golden brown. 1-3 minutes. Remove and place on a paper towel.

Assembly

We use an electric griddle to heat the tortillas. You can use a cast iron if you don't have a griddle. No need for butter or oil. It's important that you heat the tortillas or they'll fall apart and won't taste as good. I do a portion of the assembly while the tortillas are heating on the griddle. With the griddle on 300º, I heat the tortillas on one side for about 30 seconds and flip. Once flipped, I put a pinch of shredded cheese and a small amount of sliced green onions down the middle of each tortilla. The cheese should melt a little. Remove the tortillas before they get crispy. A total of about a minute.
Pull the tortillas to a plate and add the fixings.

Order

2 pieces of fish
pico de gallo
guacamole
pinch queso fresco
pinch of slaw
chipotle lime mayo
arbol chile hot sauce