I have lived for a long while in NYC and also spent some time in London. Both cities, NY especially, have a deeply ingrained culture of street food. One of my favourite forms of street food is the taco. In NY and many other cities in the USA you can find a plethora of tacos for sale from street vendors… anything from tongue, to chicken, to grilled meat, to… fish! There is a Baja style fish taco which uses deep fried fish. My version is less fussy and quicker using grilled fish instead. For me the key ingredient that makes or breaks a fish taco isn’t the fish, it’s the chipotle mayo — for me it’s an essential component. Finally, the ultimate taco is all about the garnish: you want colour, texture, and flavour to all complement each other.
- Corn tortillas (estimate 3 per person)
- ½ cup red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1.5 tsp salt
- Red onion thinly sliced
- Some whole cumin seeds
- Some whole peppercorns
- Some dried oregano
- Some thinly sliced garlic if you want
- Mayonnaise
- Chipotles en adobo
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp lime juice
- 1 Tbsp mel’s secret chili powder (mix of pimenton, ground ancho chilies, cumin, cayenne, oregano, brown sugar)
- Salmon fillet
- Salt
- Cilantro leaves picked off the stem
- Thinly sliced radishes
- Thinly sliced cabbage
- limes
- Whisk together first three ingredientes
- Mix in the rest of the ingredients
- Put in a jar with a lid, shake and let sit for about an hour before serving
- This will keep indefinately in your fridge. Just top up with more onions, vinegar, etc…
- Blitz the chipotles and mayo together until smooth. Add more of either to adjust to your taste.
- Mix the first 3 ingredients together.
- Preheat oven grill to super high
- Put the fish skin side down on a tray covered with foil
- Season each salmon fillet with salt and spread the spice mix on top of the flesh
- Grill in the oven for 8 minutes
- Reheat the tortillas in a microwave: wrap in damp paper towel and microwave for 30 seconds on high
- Put some fish on the tortilla
- Follow with whatever garnish you want
- Drizzle some chipotle may over the top
- And finish with a squeeze of lime
- trick: don’t over fill your taco or it will fall apart!
- Enjoy!