Cripsy Fried Fish Tacos
The fish recipe would also work well for Fish and Chips.
Servings 6 people
Cost $50
Equipment
- 1 Dutch Oven -- For frying. We have also used a Wok.
- 1 Spider Strainer
- 1 Large Bowl
- 1 Large Plate
- 1 Rimmed Baking Sheet with Wire Rack -- Small enough to fit in toaster oven
- 1 Large Whisk
Ingredients
- 1/2 Gallon Peanut Oil
- 2 lbs Firm White Fish -- Highly recommend Halibut. Cod is another excellent choice.
- 1/2 cup Corn Starch
- 1 container Pickled Onions -- Pickled Onion recipe in Condiments
- 1 package Flour Tortillas -- In Seattle we use Surito taco tortillas
- 1 container Cilantro Sauce -- Cilantro Sauce recipe in Condiments
- 1 container No Mayonnaise Coleslaw -- See No Mayonnaise Coleslaw recipe in Condiments
- 1 container Mexican Crema -- See condiment recipe
- 1 container Toum (Optional) See Toum recipe in Condiments
- 1 tsp Black Pepper -- freshly ground
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1/4 tsp Piment d'Espelette
- 1 bottle Hot Sauce
Batter
- 150 grams All-Purpose Flour
- 50 grams Cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 320 ml Pilsner Beer Cold
Instructions
Batter
- Mix flour, cornstarch, baking power, and salt in a large bowl.
- Place in freezer for at least 15 and up to 30 minutes.
Fish Preparation
- If the fish has skin, remove skin from the fish.
- Cut fish into 2 inch chunks.
- Sprinkle all sides fish chunks with salt, pepper, and piment d'espelette. Place fish on baking sheet with wire rack in the fridge. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
- Place 1/2 cup of cornstarch on plate
- Heat oil on high heat to 350F then lower to medium-high heat. Oil will reach 380F with carryover heat from pan.
- Remove batter mixture from the freezer and remove beer and fish from the refrigerator. Whisk cold beer into chilled flour mixture, making sure there are no clumps.
- Drink remainder of the beer.
Fish Cook
- Dredge fish in the plate of cornstarch and ensure that all sides are coated in cornstarch. Pat off any excess cornstarch.
- Dip each chunk of fish individually in the batter, allow coating to drip, and gently place in oil.
- Repeat process for 1/4 to 1/3 of the fish, careful not to crowd the fish.
- Cook until lightly browned, stirring occasionally with spider to make sure the pieces of fish do not stick together.
- Remove pieces of fish to a rimmed baking sheet with a wire rack.
- Season fish with salt. Place baking sheet in an oven or toaster oven at 225F to keep warm.
- Lightly heat tortilla over a low flame directly on the burner. When you just start to smell a char, flip. Repeat on the other side.
- Assemble tacos with with Mexican crema, cilantro sauce, coleslaw, and pickled onions. You can substitute Mexican crema with Toum. Top with fish.
Notes
One of the more reasonable taco shops in San Francisco was Uno Dos Tacos on Market and 2nd Street. Our favorites was the Pescado Taco made from Cod. On one of our urban hikes, we were able to get a weekend reservation at Waterbar on the Embarcadero and the fish taco was a fish and chip style fried piece of halibut wrapped in a flour tortilla. Mexican food has been tough to find in Seattle close to Wallingford and the closest we found that we liked was Tacos and Beer on Holman Rd. For what it is worth, the beer selection is terrible, but we where there for Mexican food. The fish taco was okay, but we highly recommend the shrimp taco, the Tacos Gobernador. Grilled shrimp, onions, poblano peppers, and a chipotle cheese sauce.
We had better luck with fish and chips, and we do need to try more. Three places I would recommend are Chinooks off the the Ballard bridge, Pacific Inn Pub off Stone Way in Fremont/Wallingford, and The White Swan Public House just north of South Lake Union Eastlake. For a fried fish taco, The Yard Cafe in Greenwood came close to what we were looking for.
We have tried frying fish tacos before, but the fish did not have that crisp we were looking for. Freezing the flour made a big difference and we were finally able to get that crunch we had with other fish and chip style tacos.