Fish Tacos and Fishing Off the Dock

It is funny the things you learn after years working at a fishing lodge. Keeping things interesting and entertaining for the crew always seems to be the one thing that keeps me hopping. Each year is different as the people change, one year they watched all the Rocky movies, multiple times; another year they fished every waking moment. This year, fishing off the floatplane dock at night is one of their favorite things to do. They snapped this picture as they were walking down to the floatplane dock to fish one night...beautiful.

There is a plane in this image, can't get enough of the beauty!

The one thing that seems to be consistent through the years is the statement, “now I have all this fish, how do I cook it?” As part of keeping things interesting we have had cooking competitions on the weekends with the crew the last few years; this year with our small army of crew we have changed things up again. As part of the cooking competition the protein for the entrée must be some kind of fish and the crew must catch the fish fresh for dinner…so far it has been almost as stressful for them to catch the fish as it is to come up with their menu! Lucky for all of you, you will be hearing from me more, as I share the recipes from each week.

Bruce set the bar high with his fish tacos, I can’t wait to make these at home…the sauce I could drink, maybe even dip veggies in it...seriously that good!

I must have been hungry because I only snapped one quick picture of my plate before I dug in!

FISH TACOS

Batter (If you have Tempura Batter Mix that works great too)

1 Cup Flour

2 Tbs Cornstarch

1 tsp baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 cup beer or club soda

The Sauce (seriously drooling right now)

½ Cup plain yogurt or sour cream

½ Cup mayonnaise

1 lime, juiced

1 jalapeno pepper, minced

1 tsp minced capers (ok to omit)

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp dried dill weed

1 tsp ground cayenne pepper

1 Quart of oil for frying

1 pound fillets, cut into 1 inch strips (halibut or rock fish)

Corn Tortillas

½ medium head cabbage, finely shredded

To make batter; In a large bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Blend egg and beer/club soda, then quickly stir in to the flour mixture (don’t worry about a few lumps). I have also used Mountain Dew and Sprite because that is what I had on hand…still tasty!
To make the white sauce; in a medium bowl mix together yogurt/sour cream and mayonnaise. Gradually stir in lime juice until the consistency is slightly runny. Season with jalapeno, capers, oregano, cumin, dill and cayenne.
Heat oil in deep fryer to 375 degrees F.
Dust fish pieces lights with flour. Dip into batter and fry until crisp and golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Heat the corn tortillas in a pan on medium; not to crisp.
To serve, place fried fish in a tortilla and top with shredded cabbage and white sauce.