Baja Fish Tacos

The closer you live to the seaside communities in Baja California, the closer you'll be to the original incarnation of Baja Fish Tacos:   fried fish, sharp cabbage, and some gooey creamy spiciness.

The farther away you get the more varied the interpretations will be, but luckily it's easy to whip up an authentic batch without booking a trip to Baja.  Keep the original specs in mind and your family and friends will be very happy with the day's catch.

Tossing the cabbage with some seasoning and lime juice is the default in Baja and will work great for this recipe, but I want to offer up an alternative for the cabbage if you want to add a little twang to it.

Curtido is a fiery, pickled slaw that usually prefers to rest overnight, but it will still give you some twang even 15-20 minutes after making it, so we'll get a batch started before making the fish batter.

The idea is to chop enough veggies for a single Mason jar, give it a shake in a seasoned vinegar mixture, and let it pickle until you need it.  So in the above pic you've got:

1/3 head of green cabbage
1/4 onion
1/4 jalapeno

Combine these well in a mixing bowl along with the following ingredients:

1/2 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano (optional)
1 teaspoon salt
freshly cracked black pepper

This should all fit into a single Mason jar, including the vinegar-water mixture.

Cover and give it a good shake, letting it rest in the fridge until you need it.  It'll be much sharper tomorrow, but I think it's still worth making it even if you want to use it a half hour from now.

Okay let's talk about Chipotle Crema -- if you're new to it you're in for a treat!  It's the perfect fit for these tacos, but it's so good that you can use it on just about anything.

It's easy to make too, simply add the following ingredients to a food processor or blender and combine well:

1 cup mayonnaise
2 garlic cloves
2 chipotles in adobo
pinch of salt
squeeze of lime

You might need to add a splash of water to get it to combine well.  I typically scrape out the seeds of the chipotles before adding them to the blender.

You can also substitute some or all of the mayonnaise with plain Greek yogurt if you want a lighter version.  For example, you could use 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt and 1/4 cup mayo and still end up with a great tasting sauce.  If you want to go all the way and use 100pct yogurt, keep in mind that adding even a pinch of fat will make it taste infinitely better -- a tablespoon of mayo or heavy cream will do the job.

Okay, let's talk fish!

We're using a pound of fresh mahi mahi.

But you've got lots of good options, with cod, tilapia, and catfish being common picks for deep frying.

Season the fish on both sides and cut into strips in the realm of 1" x 3".

Beer is the preferred liquid for this batter as it leads to lighter, crispier tacos.

In a mixing bowl combine:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder (optional)

I'm using some ground New Mexican chili powder, but you can consider this optional, seasoning the flour with salt is more important.

Combine this mixture well and then add 1 cup of beer.  Whisk together until you have batter that resembles thick paint.

You might need to add more beer to get the right consistency, I added an additional 1/4 cup of beer to this batch.

If, like me, you cringe at the thought of a huge vat of frying oil in your kitchen, then use a narrow, deep saucepan and you'll only need a few cups of oil to make these tacos.

The key is to get the oil up to 350-360F before putting in the fish.  Frying fish in oil that is too hot, or too cold, is a massively frustrating experience.

3-4 minutes in 360F oil does the job quite well, with a crispy exterior and fully cooked fish inside.  If your exterior is browning too quickly then your oil is too hot, if the interior isn't cooking all the way through then your oil is too cold.

If you don't have a kitchen thermometer don't worry about it.  I've found that a setting of 6/10 on my electric stove will keep the oil at approximately 360F once it has heated up all the way, but of course stoves will vary.  Just be sure to let the oil heat up before you add the fish.  (Plop a nugget of batter into the oil to test it, if it's sizzlin' then you're in good shape.)

Coat each fish stick with batter and gently add them to the oil.

Since we're using a small amount of oil, cooking only 3-4 pieces at a time is the best route  --  if you add the whole batch the oil temp will drop too much.

If the oil is shallow in your pan be sure to flip them once about halfway through cooking.

Once the exterior turns a deeper brown remove them carefully and set them on some paper towels to drain.  This batch needed about 4 minutes per round to cook.

Continue cooking as many as you need.  This single pound of mahi mahi made 16 pieces of fried fish that could easily double as the world's strongest human magnet.

As with all fried foods, they have a limited window where they are crispiest.  A couple minutes after taking them out of the oil, they will have cooled a bit and are ready to eat with a crispy exterior and moist fish inside -- nice!

If you let them sit for too long the exterior will start to get soggy as the heat of the fish will steam the crust from the inside out.

One way to combat this is to get them out of the draining pit as soon as possible.  So once the oil has drained off into some paper towels, put them on a wire rack in a 250-300F oven until you need them.  This can extend their life a little bit and it's a good option to keep in mind if you're making a big batch.

Okay, now it's time to warm up some corn tortillas.  If the oven is on stick the tortillas in for a few minutes, otherwise you can nuke them in the microwave for 60 seconds or so.

Each tortilla gets fried fish, chipotle crema, pickled cabbage, and a final squeeze of lime.

The final squeeze of lime is a delicious final touch so don't skimp on it!

And if you made the Curtido use a fork to take it out of the jar so that you get mostly cabbage and very little liquid.

Fried fish is a rarity for me and I think it should come with special permission to make them as goopy as you want, so feel free to load up on the Chipotle Crema and any other fixings that sound appealing to you.

These Baja Fish Tacos have incredible flavor and will quickly whisk you away to a lazy seaside town.  And you might want to stay forever.

The recipe box with all the juicy details is below if you want to make them.  Don't forget to click the 'Mark Complete' button down below to move on to the next recipe -- Ground Beef Tacos!