Fish Tacos with Roasted Corn and Cabbage Slaw

If I leave it up to Ryann, I think we’d be eating steak 24-7 but I try to get a variety of protein so we can have different meals and dishes. A couple of weeks ago I bought sole for the very first time in my life. Usually I get cod but I thought I’d get something a little different. One of the easiest things you can do with fish is fish tacos. I mean, put anything between warm flour tortillas and I think nary a soul would turn it down. 🙂

Ingredients for roasted corn and cabbage slaw:

• About 1.5 cups shredded green cabbage
• About 0.25 cup shredded carrots or purple cabbage, for variety and color
• 1 ear of corn (or about 1 cup of thawed frozen corn)
• 0.25 cup neutral oil (olive oil, avocado oil, or good ol’ vegetable/canola oil)
• 0.25 cup water
• 0.5 cup chopped green onions, both white and green parts (if you want, save some green parts and slice them thin for garnish)
• 0.5 cup chopped cilantro (full disclosure: I didn’t have any so I used parsley and it worked out just fine)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• juice of 2 limes
• 0.5 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
• pinch of salt

Ingredients for tacos:

• 1-1.5 lbs. filet of sole (or cod, or tilapia might work too; I think any type of white fish would do fine)
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 0.5 tsp. garlic powder
• 0.5 tsp. smoked paprika
• 0.25 tsp. Trader Joe’s chile lime seasoning (fine to omit if you don’t have it)
• 0.5 tsp. salt
• black pepper (I don’t like too much pepper, so I used only 0.25 tsp. but you do you, boo)
• 0.33 cup all-purpose flour (I wanted to be all scientific and used decimals instead of fractions so that’s what came out when I mean 1/3 cup, but I’m sure you all know it because you guys are smart)
• 0.33 cup cornmeal (there goes the decimal again, I might have to rethink this format)
• About 0.5 cup seltzer or plain soda water or maybe lime-flavored, that could work too!
• Oil for shallow-frying
• 6-8 flour tortillas (I used about 6-inch tortillas and got 6 tacos out of them. If you use fewer fish per taco, you may be able to get 8 tacos!)
• Shredded Monterey jack cheese or crumbled cotija
• Optional accompaniments for serving: salsa and/or hot sauce, lime wedges, guacamole, and chips

Directions:

1. Pat dry your fish. Your batter will not stick if your fish is not dry, so if you want, you can even prepare it the night before laying it out on paper towel-lined plate in the fridge, uncovered. This will help dry them out a bit more.
2. Roast your corn: I roasted my ear of corn by heating up a cast iron skillet to about medium-medium high heat. Put about 1 tbsp. of oil in the pan, and when it’s shimmering, put in your ear of corn. You want to turn the corn around frequently so that you don’t burn it, but make sure you get a little bit of charring. Once you get the achieved browning, set corn aside to cool. If you’re working with thawed frozen corn, you can saute them in a hot pan to achieve that charring.
3. Make the dressing for the slaw: blend oil, water, green onions, cilantro, garlic, lime juice, sour cream/Greek yogurt, and salt to make a dressing. I used an immersion blender for this but you can use food processor or regular blender. If you want to practice next level chef skills, you can even chop the green onions, cilantro, and garlic very fine and then blend everything with a whisk. That’ll be your cardio for the day.
4. Shred the corn from the cob (is that the correct verb? Shred the corn? Maybe separate? Run a knife along the corn cob?), then mix them with shredded cabbage, and shredded carrot/purple cabbage. Pour in about half the dressing. You may end up with more dressing than vegetables, so go easy and mix in about half of it first and then more if you think it needs more dressing. Set aside to let the flavors get to know each other.
5. Make batter for the fish: combine all the spices with cornmeal and all-purpose flour, then whisk in seltzer/soda water a little at a time until you reach pancake batter-like consistency.
6. Heat up your oil in a frying pan and set it at medium or medium-high heat. You want to make sure the oil is hot enough so that you do not end up with greasy fish, so test the oil by dipping wooden spoon (or chopstick). If you see bubbles coming up, then your oil is ready. This should take about 3-4 minutes. Please be careful not to let the oil smoke – if it does, then your oil is way too hot.
7. Cut your fish to about the length of your tortilla. Depending on the size of your filet, you may get 2 or 3 pieces per filet. Just make sure they’re about the same size so they will cook evenly around the same time. Dredge your fish pieces in the batter, then let the excess batter drip back into the bowl. Gently transfer to the hot oil, lay it out away from you to avoid splatter. Because sole is such a flat fish, this took only about 1 minute on each side. If you are using cod or tilapia, you may need 3-4 minutes on each side for the fish to cook through. Remove from frying pan and transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain the oil. Sprinkle with some salt while still hot to season.
8. Tacos, assemble! I mean, assemble your tacos: Turn the heat on a frying pan to medium and then heat up your tortillas by flipping them a few times in that pan. If you don’t want to dirty up another pan, please wrap your tortillas in a damp paper towel and heat them in a microwave for about 30 seconds or so. If your tortillas are not warm, they can break in the assembly and that will break your heart (or maybe just mine). Arrange about a tablespoon of your slaw on a tortilla, top with some fish, a little more slaw and cheese. Add some salsa and/or hot sauce and serve with your preferred taco accompaniments.