We recently went on a spear fishing trip and we (and by “we” I mean Clay) got sooooooo many fish! We made this fish taco recipe over the weekend with some of the Hogfish snapper we caught and it was AMAZING. Seriously, the best fish tacos I have ever had.
You can use any white fish you want for these tacos – snapper, halibut, mahi mahi, etc.
We pan fried the fish, but grilling the fish would be equally delicious. Each taco has only about 1-½ ounces of fish and the batter we used is so light, frying the fish only adds about 50 calories per taco.
Ingredients
For the Tacos
- 12 ounces white fish such as snapper or mahi mahi, cut into strips about 1” wide
- 8 corn tortillas
For the Batter
- 1 cup tempura mix
- 1 cup beer
For the Slaw
- ½ red cabbage, shredded
- ½ red onion, shredded
- ½ cup cilantro, chopped
- 2 large carrots, shredded
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Juice of 1 lime
- Salt + pepper to taste
For the Sauce
- ¼ cup mayonnaise or sour cream or Fage Greek yogurt
- 3 chipotles in adobe, roughly chopped + a spoonful of the sauce
- 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- Juice of 2 limes
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- Salt + pepper to taste
Directions
For the Slaw
- In a large bowl combine the cabbage, onions, carrots and cilantro
- In a separate small bowl whisk together the vinegar, olive oil, lime juice and salt + pepper
- Drizzle vinegar and oil mixture over cabbage mixture and mix well to combine
- Best if slaw can sit in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving
For the Sauce
- In a food processor combine the mayonnaise (or sour cream or Fage Greek Yogurt), chipotles, lime juice and garlic
- Process until smooth
- With the food processor running, drizzle in the olive oil
- Season with salt and pepper
To Cook Fish
- Slice the fish into 1 inch wide strips
- Whisk together the tempura batter and beer, careful not to over mix
- Heat the cooking oil (peanut oil is the most flavorful – but you can use others) to 350 degrees in a Dutch oven using a candy/frying thermometer to monitor the temperature
- Once the oil is hot, add the battered fish in batches, being careful not to crowd it. Cook the fish for 5 minutes total, it should be golden brown when done. Remove to a paper towel and cook the remaining fish
To Assemble the Tacos
- Heat the corn tortillas
- Place a small amount of fish on each tortilla, top with slaw and drizzle sauce over slaw
Makes 8 tacos
A note about frying + batter making from Clay
The key to great fried fish is using a very light tempura beer batter. The easiest way to do this is to buy a pre-made box of tempura mix. The secret to making a great tempura batter is to keep it very cold. I use two metal mixing bowls. In the bottom one I create a mixture of ice and water, then set the second bowl into the first one to cool prior to making the batter. Then, when making the batter you want to add the cup of beer first and then whisk the tempura mix into the beer. Mix the batter using a whisk – but do the absolute minimum amount of mixing possible to combine it – too much mixing causes gluten formation, which causes the batter to become doughy and not light. Once the batter is made, you can drop all the fish into the batter to coat it completely.
If you want to grill the fish –Jenn’s preferred way….
Simply brush the fish with olive oil and season with salt + pepper
