San Diego Style Fish Taco

The weekends, because of work shifts, are the only time we get a chance to sit down as a family for meals. I always to try make a dish or meal one of the kids or my husband would like to eat. I guess my husband learned from last weekend, he had better come up with an idea for dinner. I had planned to make the Sweet and Spicy Chicken in the crock-pot, when my husband surprised me by requesting fish tacos for dinner.

My first thought, was how simply I could make this meal. Dungeness crab from California is the closest thing to fish my daughter will touch. My son (A.K.A. The Picky Eater, Bottomless Pit) I have a 50/50 chance of him liking it. My first thought was a Baja style, fried fish taco. Run to the store get breaded frozen fish. I thought no problem; I can maybe hide the fish taste from one child. I should have known it was not going to be easy, my husband wanted non-breaded fish.

When you make fish tacos, use a white fish, such as Cod, Halibut, or Tilapia. There are various ways to cook the fish, either by broiling, baking, pan frying or grilling. You have to get the sauce right. The flavors have to be a bit complex, the consistency cannot be too liquid or to solid. If the sauce is not correct, the rest just does not matter.

I use Tilapia for fish tacos. On each side brush with vegetable oil then season with equal parts cayenne and black pepper. Since my portions of fish were thin, I used an indoor grill and cooked each one for a few minutes until done (the fish turns the color of a hardboiled egg white)

We serve the fish on flour tortillas, with iceberg lettuce, fish sauce and guacamole. More traditional fish tacos use cabbage or Jicama. I will use Jicama sometimes, when I want a sweeter taste to the tacos, but usually it is the iceberg lettuce in the fridge.

The fish sauce recipe is adapted from The Soup Addict. I have changed the recipe a bit for our liking. I have added a bit more seasonings and limejuice, thus giving a warmer, earthy taste. You can find the original recipe at http://soupaddict.com/2009/06/wickedly-good-fish-taco-sauce/

Ingredients:

½ cup fresh sour cream

½ cup Best Foods / Hellman’s mayonnaise

Juice of one lime

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon dried dill weed (not dill seed)

½ teaspoon parsley

¼ teaspoon chipotle chili powder

1 Tablespoon of taco seasoning (See Stop Your Seasoning Packet Addiction, blog entry)

 ½ teaspoon capers

1 whole jalapeno

2 Tablespoon fresh cilantro

Directions:

Blend sour cream and mayonnaise in a small plastic bowl that has a lid.

Cut top of Jalapeno and place in a mini-chopper with capers, cilantro and limejuice. Pulse chopper until ingredients are minced. Stir into sour cream mixture, cover and refrigerate for an hour or more.

Guacamole recipe:

Two avocados seeded, skinned

3 Tablespoon of salsa of your choice

1 ¼ teaspoon garlic salt (See Stop Your Seasoning Packet Addiction, blog entry)

Juice from half of a lime

Mash avocados either with fork or potato masher, mix in spices and lime juice in a plastic bowl. With a piece of plastic wrap, push down on Guacamole mixture making sure the entire surface is covered. Cover with plastic lid and place in refrigerator for an hour.

Kit’s Blueberry Cream Cheese Shortbread

The key to this desert is the use of Comstock Blueberry brand pie filling and Kraft Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Cool Whip. Kit has substituted other brands and was not happy with the results. She has also made her own whipped cream and cannot tell the difference.
***As a side note, did you know that Comstock is making their pie fillings without corn syrup?**

I used strawberry pie filling, since that was what I had in the pantry. When I served this to my family I also added in fresh strawberries to offset the canned taste. If you like, cheesecake you will love this, I am sure it would taste good with cherry as well.

I also used whipped cream from a can, instead of Cool-Whip. Whipped cream, I personally think has better taste than Cool-whip, but it would be a personal choice.

Since my 9” X 13” was being used for another recipe I used a 7” X 11” pan, I would not recommend it. The shortbread was too thick; it was still enjoyable but would have been much better in the larger pan.

Below this recipe, I am going to include how to make your own pie filling if you would like to try a different fruit or to make entirely from scratch. The glaze is very simple to make and the flavor is splendid.



Crust

2 sticks butter

4 Tablespoons powdered sugar

2 cups flour

1/2 cups chopped pecans

The edges were just turn brown

Combine ingredients. Press into 9x13 pan. Chill for 1/2 hour. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly brown (about 20 minutes)





Filling

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese

3/4 cup powdered sugar (sifted)

1 teaspoon vanilla

 8 oz whipped cream

1 21 oz can blueberry pie filling



Cream cheese and sifted powdered sugar



Mix sugar and cream cheese. Fold in whip cream and vanilla. Pour on cooled crust and chill until ready to serve. Serve topped with chilled blueberry.

Make sure you get your berries spread evenly, having berries at one end is not pretty!

To make pie filling from scratch: I am going to write for strawberries, you can substitute any berry you chose.

1 cup of strawberries mashed

1 cup of white sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

¾ cup of water

Directions:

Over medium heat, in a small /medium saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch.

Add mashed berries and water to pan, stir while bring to boil.

Continue to stir while cooking at a boil for three minutes. Remove from heat allow to cool ten minutes before adding 4 to five cups of fresh sliced strawberries to glaze.

**Usage Note** If you were going to use for the Shortbread recipe above, I would make the glaze first. This way it will be completely cool before layering on whipped cream.