Taco Tuesday: Baja Fish Tacos

people always get so excited when I say I'm gonna do Baja style fried fish tacos I don't know why but I guess it's because everybody loves fried fish and you put that together with something creamy something crunchy in something spicy and well you've got a match made in heaven so I'm going to go through a recipe that I learned from one of the most famous vendors down in Baja in Ensenada and here's the way they make the batter okay so it starts with all-purpose flour here and I'm going to add a teaspoon of baking powder to that just stir it all together to make sure that the baking powder gets mixed in there with the flour now as part here I'm going to give the flavoring so you got to take a look at what's in here some chopped garlic salt and pepper Mexican oregano and yes that is regular old ballpark mustard that's the one of the things that gives color to this and gives flavor here's the other trick they told me is add a little bit of the powdered chicken bouillon now at the grocery store that's near my house they actually sell one of these that has all natural products that's what I recommend NORs Weesa is one of the ones that you'll find all over Mexico and people use it all the time put that into the bowl as well and then I'm going to add a cup of beer to that and whisk it all together here yes that is a siren because we are right next to a fire station ok so once you get that mixed together pretty well and it's going to take a little while to get the bouillon mixed in there then we'll put that into the dry ingredients still a little bit of bullion there I think I'm going to be able to mix it in here and we want a batter that's not too thick so I'm going to and a little bit more beer to it here so that I can have a nice a nice batter for dipping the dip in that fish into now let's talk fish while I'm finishing this stirring process here okay so you can choose any kind of firm white fish I wouldn't choose anything that's too delicate and flaky so I'd say stay away from flounders to tell you the truth one of my absolute favorites to use in a preparation like this is catfish it's both affordable and it is firm so there's a lot of good quality farm-raised catfish out there so we're going to take some that's already sliced up into long pieces here dip the pieces into the batter I've got oil that's at the temperature of 375 degrees and I always recommend using a thermometer so that you'll know that yeah I'm right about 370 degrees put that in there I'm going to turn the temperature up now to help recover a couple more pieces of the fish dip it all the way into this batter and lay it into the oil and another big piece here this recipe didn't come from little Phoenix which is one of my favorites they're in Ensenada and one that I've been to a lot of times it came from a small family-owned place that I fell in love with when I was doing research for our television series there I'm going to let this cook until it's beautifully golden and then we'll come back and talk about the classic talking toppings these things are beautiful turn off the heat now and take them out onto a paper towel lined tray nice and and beautiful in terms of not looking greasy I think this batter works out really really well now talk about it company mints I've got some very thinly sliced cabbage in Ensenada that's one of the must you have to have that lime of course to squeeze on it and then they do this really cool crema kind of thing so it's a mixture of some mayonnaise Mexican style mayonnaise done with lime and some Mexican crema you mix those two things together thin it out with a little bit of milk and this is what you get this is the consistency that you get I have some Tomasulo hot sauce to put on here you could put any kind of hot sauce that you want grab a tortilla and lay that down here I'm going to make what I consider to be my perfect version of this taco so even my mouth is watering I'm getting excited about it a little bit of the cabbage for crunch there I'm going to spoon on some of this gorgeous crema and you know that the Mayo in there actually gives it a completely different taste which i think is perfect for this - on hot sauce and I'm kind of a hot sauce fanatic so I'm going to put a little extra on there and then there you go with the lime which is absolutely essential and now I don't have to talk about this thing anymore I just get to eat it

Channel: Rick Bayless

Views: 415,675

Rating: 4.9056139 out of 5

Keywords: Rick Bayless, fish tacos, Baja fish tacos, Taco Tuesday, dinner, recipes, fish, seafood, cooking, chef, Bayless, fried fish, tortilla, hot sauce, cabbage

Id: q0UbsiMuBWo

Length: 6min 5sec (365 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 11 2016