Fish tacos... with a flare

Guadalajara on Abilene Street is my favorite Mexican restaurant in Colorado and one of my favorite things on the menu is their fish tacos. What I don't like about this dish however, is that it is laden with cheese and re-fried beans. At the end of the meal I am in a serious food coma. So naturally, when I had a craving for fish tacos I tried to find a recipe that would come close to the one at Guadalajara. The thing that made their fish tacos amazing is a yummy garlic sauce of sorts. so I knew that I would have to get a good sauce or my fish tacos wouldn't cut it. So here goes... with a combination of recipes I think I was able to pull it off.

I used this recipe from Food Network Chef Bobby Flay as a base and tweaked it a bit, or maybe I tweaked it a lot:


Ingredients:

Tacos:

• 1 pound white flaky fish, such as mahi mahi or orata(I used Tilapia, about 4 filets)
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 tablespoons ancho chili powder (for my Caribbean friends I used 1 teaspoon of pepper sauce)
• 1 jalapeno, coarsely chopped (Didn't really need this once I added the pepper sauce)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 8 flour tortilla 

I also used:

•  2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.
• Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• 1/2 small onion (diced) 

Garnish:

1. Tomato & Carrot Salsa

• 6 grape tomoatoes
• 2 heads green onions / scallions (finely chopped)
• 1 carrot (shredded) 
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves (chopped)
• Salt and black pepper (to taste) 
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)

In a medium sized bowl, add tomatoes, green onions, carrots, cilantro, salt and pepper and lemon juice. Toss everything together. Top with cheddar cheese once added to fish tacos.

2. Garlic Aioli Sauce

• 6 large cloves garlic, peeled
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 cup Spanish olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped chives

Place garlic cloves in a blender or food processor and pulse until finely chopped, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. Add the salt, egg yolks, and lemon juice and process until well combined.

With the machine running, add the oil in a thin, steady stream until the mixture is thickened. Stir in chives, adjust seasonings as needed.

Yield: about 1 cup

Directions

My directions were completely different from Bobby Flay's original recipe but by now you know that I was only using that recipe as my base. 

Preheat grill to medium-high heat (I actually did mine on the stove top using a large frying pan). Place fish in a medium size dish. Whisk together the oil, lime juice, ancho, jalapeno, and cilantro and pour over the fish. Let marinate for 15 to 20 minutes. I did everything up to this point. Then I pretty much followed my own cooking methods.

Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to frying pan (set at medium-high heat). When hot (but not smoking) add garlic and onion, stirring occasionally until brown (about 3 to 4 minutes). Then add fish and salt and pepper, lower the heat and cover frying pan. Let fish simmer, for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Once cooked, I used my spoon to cut each filet into 5 or 6 chunks, and gave it a quick toss, then remove from heat.

Preheat another frying pan or skillet if you have one, on medium-high heat. Then warm tortillas for about 1 minute on each side (until slightly brown). Divide the fish among the tortillas and garnish with any or all of the garnishes.I added the aioli sauce first, then the salsa and topped it off with the cheddar cheese. 

I served my tacos with black beans and a brown rice pilaf.