Category Archives: Mexican Food

Mexican Food

Mel’s Fish Tacos

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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.

Mel's Fish Tacos
 
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Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients
  • Corn tortillas (estimate 3 per person)
For the pickled onions:
  • 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
For the chipotle mayonnaise:
  • Mayonnaise
  • Chipotles en adobo
For the fish:
  • 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
For the garnish:
  • Cilantro leaves picked off the stem
  • Thinly sliced radishes
  • Thinly sliced cabbage
  • limes
Instructions
To make the pickled onions:
  1. Whisk together first three ingredientes
  2. Mix in the rest of the ingredients
  3. Put in a jar with a lid, shake and let sit for about an hour before serving
  4. This will keep indefinately in your fridge. Just top up with more onions, vinegar, etc…
To make the chipotle mayo:
  1. Blitz the chipotles and mayo together until smooth. Add more of either to adjust to your taste.
To make the fish:
  1. Mix the first 3 ingredients together.
  2. Preheat oven grill to super high
  3. Put the fish skin side down on a tray covered with foil
  4. Season each salmon fillet with salt and spread the spice mix on top of the flesh
  5. Grill in the oven for 8 minutes
To assemble a fish taco:
  1. Reheat the tortillas in a microwave: wrap in damp paper towel and microwave for 30 seconds on high
  2. Put some fish on the tortilla
  3. Follow with whatever garnish you want
  4. Drizzle some chipotle may over the top
  5. And finish with a squeeze of lime
  6. trick: don’t over fill your taco or it will fall apart!
  7. Enjoy!