Homemade Fish Tacos

During our “menu planning” at the end of last week, my husband and I were trying to brainstorm some simple, hot-weather dinners for the next two weeks.

One of his suggestions was fish tacos, which made me balk, but after a little Googling I realized how easy they’d actually be. That is, until I forgot to pick up tortillas and decided that instead of running to the grocery store at the last minute I’d try making some of my own!

For the tortillas I queried my best friend, who suggested a very specific masa harina (tortilla flour) made by Quaker.

We’ve tried two other mixes in the past and they always ended up too thick, and tasted like pancakes.

The Quaker brand was perfect — they rolled out thin (and were very forgiving as far as the rolling pin goes), didn’t taste like pancakes, and one batch made the perfect amount of taco-sized tortillas.

My husband also had no problem rolling out larger tortillas for a batch of enchiladas I’ll make over the next couple of days.

For the fish tacos, I made up a batch of Baja Sauce. It made a ton so if I do it again I’m definitely cutting it in half, at least. I used jalapeno peppers from our container garden and I wish I’d put in a couple of more — the sour cream and mayo ended up taking over!

For the fish I used a package of frozen fish fillets. Yes, I could have tried battering and frying my own, but I can’t bring myself to trust the freshness of the fish here in my extremely land-locked desert city! The fillets were perfect and deliciously crispy. I cut each fillet in half length-wise, then chopped those into threes (for a total of six bite sized pieces per fillet).

I then slathered on some Baja Sauce on a tortilla, layered some crispy shredded cabbage on it, added the fish, a little more sauce, and some fresh chopped tomatoes (also from our garden!).

Needless to say, it was a hit! I probably should have bought another box of fish since the one I got only had ten small fillets, which gave us each two tacos. My husband would have loved to have taken some in to work for lunch today (we’ve got plenty of sauce and tortillas left!) and the kids and I wouldn’t have minded have some leftovers too, but we’ll know for next time!