A taco variation for a-fish-ionados

A couple weeks ago, our neighbors Mike and Jane Boardman came to teach me how to make fish tacos. Mike learned to love them when he lived in San Diego for a while, where for a couple of bucks he could buy them from street vendors for lunch. Most modern fish-eating Mainers are going to like this way of using cod or haddock. It’s a nice variation on the taco theme.

I first had them at the Boston Seafood Show a few years ago. That taco was a tiny cocktail-size one, with a little fish-sticklike thing, a dab of a zippy coleslaw and a spicy sauce.

Mike likes using shredded cabbage, though that night we used finely shredded romaine lettuce. He makes a creamy sauce out of sour cream or yogurt, thinned out with lime juice, and fresh pico de gallo with raw tomato, onion, cilantro and lime juice. He told me to bake the fish, and when he and Jane got to our house, we made the pico de gallo and sauce, and we warmed up tortillas.

I simply baked a filet of fish seasoned with salt and pepper, but you could experiment with other seasonings if you wish. In fact, baking the fish instead of using a breaded, fried fish is one way of keeping calories down, though you may prefer a breaded product. Using a low-fat sour cream or even low-fat yogurt instead also reduces the fat content of this meal.

Mike made the pico de gallo really quickly and put quite a lot of cilantro in it, and chives for color and flavor. You may have a favorite salsa you might prefer to use, and you could even tinker with it, adding seasonings. For Mike, a fish taco has to have the pico de gallo, and I would agree as long as you can get reasonably good tomatoes.

Warmed soft corn tortillas are best because they wrap around the fish and greens, making them easier to handle.

Fish Tacos

Serves 4

Pico de gallo:

2-3 tomatoes

1 small red onion

1-2 limes, juiced

Bunch of cilantro

Bunch of chives

Fish:

1 pound white fish

Sauce:

? pint sour cream or yogurt

Lime juice

Quarter head cabbage, finely shredded

8-10 soft corn tortillas

Lime, quartered

For the pico de gallo, chop the tomatoes and onion and put in a bowl with the lime juice. Add chopped cilantro and chives to taste. Chill in fridge for an hour.

Heat oven to 350 F and put fish on a lightly oiled pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Bake until the fish flakes apart, about 20 minutes or less. Wrap tortillas in a slightly damp towel, and put into a warm oven, around 200 F.

Assemble sauce: Stir lime juice into the sour cream or yogurt until it is thin enough to drizzle.

Put the fish, cabbage, pico de gallo and sauce on the table and let everyone assemble their own taco. Put the fish in the center of the tortilla, drizzle sauce on it, add cabbage, then the pico de gallo. If you like hot sauce, serve that and the quartered lime on the table so diners can add it to taste.