I've never tried making tacos or cooking Mexican before. Having too much time at home during isolation gave me the space to dream up all the flavours I had missed from my past trips. The cheap and cheerful quesadillas filled with different of goodness such as zucchini flowers, huitlacoche (Mexican truffle) and chicharron en salsa de tomato (pork crackling in tomato sauce) were just few things that I missed. As diverse as Melbourne's food culture is, for some reason none of the local taqueria serves any of these flavours that are so deliciously unique to Mexico, and thus the reason why I've decided to learn how to make it myself. This fish taco is just a warm up to the greatness yet to come. It's a light fresh fusion style taco with the addition of Australian finger lime which works extremely well with everything else. In one bite, you'll get the juicy white fish encrusted in a light tempura batter, followed by the sweetness from the pineapple, the zingy acidity from lime and finger lime, and a bit of kick from the habanero mayonnaise. It's almost too good to share!
(c) Girl I met during my trip making fresh tacos in San Cristobal de Las Casas. Rights to all photos reserved.
Difficulty: Medium
Time: 15 prep, 1 hr cooking
Serves: 2
Ingredients
Squid Ink Tacos
- 100g white corn flour
- 100g water
- 1 small sachet of squid ink
Fish
- 300g flake fillet sliced into strips
- salt
- pepper
- 60g tempura batter flour
- 90g water
- oil for deep frying
Pineapple Salsa
- 1 cup ripe fresh pineapples cut into small pieces (0.5cm)
- 1 tbsp finely chopped red onions
- 1/2 tbsp finely chopped jalapeno
- juice from half a fresh lime
- salt
- pepper
Chilli Mayo
- 4 tbsp good quality mayonnaise
- 1/2 - 1 habanero finely sliced
- 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
- salt
- pepper
Garnish
- 1 tbsp finely finely sliced red onion
- juice from 1/2 lime
- 2 finger limes
- coriander
Method
1. Season the flake fillets well with salt and pepper, leave it to marinade.
2. Make the pineapple salsa by combining all the ingredients together in a bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.
3. Pickle the finely sliced red onion for the garnish by combining it with the lime juice. This will take the pungent edge off the raw onion. Set aside.
4. Make the chilli mayonnaise by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
5. Make taco by combining the flour with water, knead it until it forms a nice dough. Divide and roll it into a golf ball size dough balls and flatten using a tortilla press to form the tacos. This should give you approx. 8 tacos.
6. Heat up a cast iron pan over medium heat, cook the tacos on the heated pan for 1 minute on each side. Keep it warm and moist until serving.
7. Make the batter for the fish by mixing the tempura batter flour with water until it's smooth and there are no lumps. Dip the fish fillets into the batter and deep fry in a pot filled with oil in batches over medium heat until golden.
8. Assemble by placing the fish fillets on top a taco, dress generously with the chilli mayonnaise, followed by the pineapple salsa, pickled red onions, finger lime and coriander. Enjoy while it's hot.
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