Spicy Baja Fish Tacos

I love my fishmonger. My sister and I go grocery shopping every Saturday and usually we're too lazy to go to more than one shop. However, lately, we've been making an effort to go pick up really fresh seafood from a local fish shop. It's definitely more expensive than the fish sold in our grocery store but so much fresher and more delicious and there's more variety. So, I've been ignoring the cost and enjoying the seafood.

Two weekends in a row back in January, we bought chilean sea bass and enjoyed some amazing fish tacos. I hadn't had fish tacos in a long time, probably not since my original baja fish tacos post which was over a year ago. Now, all I want to eat is fish tacos.

This recipe is only slightly different from my previous one; I just added some spices to the batter along with a little more leavening. But it's a delicious change that I thought was worth sharing.

Ingredients [serves 4]:
fried fish
1 lb. chilean sea bass, cut into strips (or any sturdy white fish of your choice)
½ cup flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ancho chili powder
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon cumin
⅓ to ½ cup beer
+ oil for frying

fish tacos
dozen tortillas
pico de gallo
1 avocado, sliced
1 lime, cut into wedges
chipotle sauce
sour cream
hot sauce
cilantro leaves
escovitch pickles

I used this pineapple hefeweizen in my batter, which was delicious. It's slightly sweet which really complements the fish.

To make the batter, combine the dry ingredients together and then slowly stir in the beer until a thick batter forms. The texture should be similar to a cake batter, which is thick enough to coat the fish but not so thick that the batter overwhelms the fish.

Dip the fish in the batter and cook in hot oil (350F) for a few minutes on each side until golden brown and crisp.

Plate the cooked fish on a paper towel-lined plate to wick away the excess oil.

Serve the fish with your favorite toppings. We had a spicy chipotle sauce. sour cream, escovitch pickles, pico de gallo made with yellow tomatoes, avocado slices, grilled poblano peppers, and lots of cilantro and lime.

These fish tacos are so good. The batter is light and crisp with a hint of spice, the fresh corn tortillas are a requirement because they're delicious, and all of the toppings are compulsory too. I highly recommend using chilean sea bass for this dish. It's a bit pricey (at our fishmonger it's $27 per pound) but worth it. It's the perfect soft texture, has enough integrity to hold up under the crispy breading, and has a fresh flavor (i.e. it's not at all fishy).

Here's the recipe page: