One of the best lunches I’ve ever had was a simple dish of fish tacos. We had just walked the Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Maine, and in Perkins Cove we stopped for a meal at MC Perkins. While they generally do things on a fancier plane there, I ordered the fish tacos, and what arrived was a quartet of the most delicious delights I’ve been lucky enough to eat. Maybe it was the walk along the Maine shore that made me so ravenous, or maybe it was the way we simply seem to enjoy food more when on vacation, but this
While they did theirs with a simple fried white fish and typical flour tortilla, it was the accents that made it shine: a glorious red cabbage slaw, some fresh jalapeños and cilantro, and a tasty remoulade that brought it all together. For years I’ve been trying to find a similar dish, but in upstate New York such magic is in short supply. With our fryer in full effect, this seemed as good a time as any to see if I couldn’t replicate it myself, and in case you don’t want to read any further I’ll break it down with a simple spoiler: it was fucking fantastic.
First up, the fish. After looking online at various options, I decided on a bastardized beer batter using 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of a Corona. One recipe I read called for a dark Mexican beer – an Equis Amber maybe? – but I wasn’t going out in the rain so a Corona would have to do. It’s one of the few beers I drink anyway; sometimes laziness dictates recipe substitutions. You mix them together, add some salt and pepper and smoked paprika, and let stand for about fifteen minutes – perfect timing to assemble the slaw.
Here’s what I used for the recipe:
- 1 pound thinly sliced or shredded cabbage (I found a bag of red and green cabbage with carrots at Trader Joe’s and all the slicing and chopping was done)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup thinly sliced & diced red onion
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- ¼ of a jalapeño, finely chopped
- ¼ cup fresh lime juice
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
Mix it all together and you’re done.
If you’re going for something healthier, you can probably omit the creamy sauce (though if you’re going for something healthy, a fried fish taco is rather pointless). I would advise indulging and adding this remoulade because it absolutely brings everything together. Again, I bastardized a mishmash of several online recipes, and the end result was, more or less, as follows:
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup sour cream
- Juice of half a lime
- Tbsp of chipotle adobo sauce (or less if you’re shy in the company of some heat)
- 1 teaspoon of fresh garlic, finely chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
This remoulade should really be made earlier in the day so the flavors can meld, but in a pinch it will do immediately. Obviously, I wasn’t waiting. We fried up the fish, assembled the tacos, and all was right again with the world. (Thanks to Pati Jinich for the inspiration!)
