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Fish tacos are not so much a recipe in Mexico as a way of life! There’s the protein—a firm-fleshed, exquisitely fresh fish, minimally seasoned and served hot off the grill. There’s the wrap: one or two corn tortillas. Usually, there’s shredded cabbage or lettuce, maybe avocado wedges, or fresh onions. All topped with your choice of salsa.
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Mexican grilled fish tacos aren't so much a recipe as a philosophy of eating and a way of life
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There's the protein, fish so fresh it came off the boat that morning
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There's the wrapper, freshly made tortillas, and an explosive array of condiments
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This is a mahi-mahi filet, and you want to cut it into finger-thick escalope, diagonal slices
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to maximize the amount of surface area exposed to the fire. Season the fish on both sides with coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
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Then a squeeze of fresh lime juice. The seasonings are pretty simple
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The fireworks come from the condiments. marinate the fish for 30 to 60 minutes and if you're working outside like i am be sure it's over ice
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next the salsa there are literally hundreds perhaps thousands of salsas in mexico today i'm going to
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make a salsa from the yucatan called chiltomate the ingredients are simple but the technique may
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surprise you. Start with onion, tomato, and fiery habanero chilies, and arrange them directly on the
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coals This is an ancient Mexican technique and there nothing like it for imparting a smoky flavor to the vegetables So what you want to do is char the vegetables on all sides It take about two to three minutes per side on the tomatoes
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maybe a minute per side on the habanero chilies. The onion will take a little longer, maybe 12 to 15 minutes
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And when the vegetables are charred and blackened on all sides, remove them from the fire
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Be sure to shake the vegetables to dislodge any ash. And warning, as these habanero chilies roast, they will emit extremely virulent fumes
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And let the vegetables rest until cool enough to handle. The traditional device for grinding the vegetables for the salsa is a mola cajete, a lava stone, mortar, and pestle
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You can also use a food processor. So, take your roasted vegetables and peel off most of the burnt skin
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For a milder chiltomate, seed the chilies. I'm kind of a firebrand when it comes to Mexican salsas
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so I'm going to leave the seeds in. So whenever you make a salsa in a food processor
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grind the solid ingredients first, running the machine in short bursts. And you can see some of these black spots from the charred tomato skins
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Absolutely delicious. Next add chopped fresh cilantro lime juice salt and pepper
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Puree the mixture again until smooth. And you just want to taste your chiltomate
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Woo! That's a hottie. Serve the chile tomate in the mola cajete
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Okay, we have one final preparation, a simple garlic cilantro butter for basting the fish
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Here's some melted butter. All you do is add finely chopped garlic
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and chopped fresh cilantro. Return the mixture to the heat. and cook until the garlic and cilantro are sizzling
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In Mexico, people grill fish not on a grill grate, but in a grill basket
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And what you want to do is spray the grill basket with spray oil
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or wipe it with an oiled cloth. and now the cool part
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place your fish basket directly over the coals cooking time pretty quick
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about 3 minutes per side music Baste the fish with the garlic cilantro butter
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You never want to touch a basting brush to raw meat or raw fish
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last step here is to warm the tortillas
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and the beauty of the fish basket you can see there's absolutely no sticking
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here are your mexican fish tacos let me show you how to put them together so first tortilla
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A piece of grilled mahi-mahi. Then a scoop of guacamole. The recipe's on our website
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Crema, which is Mexican sour cream, or you can use conventional sour cream
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A sprinkle of shredded cabbage or lettuce. And a spoonful of your fiery chiltomate
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Mmm. So sweet. So fresh. And that salsa is like fireworks in your mouth
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