Beer-Battered Fish Tacos with Creamy Chipotle Sauce

The first time I had fish tacos was just this past September, in while in Aruba with my sister Allie. One evening after being totally exhausted from a fantastic snorkeling trip and not feeling much like venturing downtown for dinner, we headed down to the hotel's sports-themed bar/restaurant for a quick bite. We were very, very pleasantly surprised. Despite the corny ambiance we were fully impressed by their fish tacos, made with perfectly fried local fish and fresh, yummy toppings on white flour tortillas. Delish.

So, for some reason, I decided that I wanted to make some fish tacos of my own while still here on the Cape. Adventure!

The sauce is based off of my recipe for the spicy chipotle dressing that I used in my black bean bowls with brown rice and sweet corn salsa back in June. Basically you'll want to make the dressing in a food processor and add sour cream until you are happy with the texture - probably around three quarters of a cup or more. Since this will also cool down the spiciness of the sauce, it may take a little fiddling with to reach the level of spiciness that you're going for, but it's totally worth it. Also, this way you can make a signature sauce that's all your own.

Crispy golden fried fish covered in sauce and toppings.

This recipe serves 4 people.

Ingredients
1 1/2 lb. fresh cod fillets, sliced diagonally into about 4 inch strips
White flour tortillas (Not corn. That is a mistake that I very nearly made.)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 12 oz. bottle of lager (I used Sankaty Light Lager made by Cisco Brewers on Nantucket, which I recommend.)
Oil for frying (quantity will depend on the vessel you're using)
1/2 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning or a "house seasoning" mix

Oil for frying
Slotted or basket spoon, wok or cast-iron dutch oven for frying

Directions
1. Heat oil in your dutch oven or wok. If you have a thermometer for these purposes, you'll want it around 375 Fahrenheit. If not, you want it hot enough that if you add a drop of water, the oil sizzles and freaks out a little. Very scientific. (Another trick is to test the temperature with a cube of bread. If it browns within a minute, it's ready to go). Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
2. Wrap your tortillas up in some aluminum foil and place in the oven. In a large bowl, pour out the beer. Sift 1 1/2 cups of the flour into the bowl, add house seasoning and whisk until just combined.
3. Pat fish dry with a paper towel, season on both sides with salt and pepper and coat with beer batter. Dredge fish in remaining flour and slide into the oil.
4. Fry fish until deep golden and cooked through, about 4 - 5 minutes. Transfer to baking sheet lined with paper towels and keep warm in oven, frying the remaining fish in batches.
5. Serve fish with toppings and sauce on a small pitcher, gravy boat, or with a ladle, and the warmed tortillas.

This batter is, in a word, fantastic. With the Sankaty Light Lager we used our batter came out light and crispy, without overwhelming the delicious, flaky white fish. I would recommend this for any kind of fried fish or seafood that you feel like beer-battering. The toppings are up to your own artistic license. I served them with shredded red cabbage, thinly sliced red onion, guacamole, a wedge of lime and the chipotle sauce, but they would also be delicious with a corn salsa, diced peppers and onions or even cucumber, if you're feeling adventurous.

My only caveat with this dish is the work involved. There is nothing difficult about the frying - the battering and cooking are all pretty simple - but you will almost certainly want an extra set of hands to help scoop out the cooked fish strips and transfer them to the baking sheet. Fortunately my Mom was there to (enthusiastically) do everything that my batter-covered hands were much too gunky to do. So grab a friend or two, some fresh fish and a beer and make some yummy, crispy tacos!

Quote of the Day: Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish. ~ Ovid

Black Bean Bowls with Brown Rice, Sweet Corn Salsa & Spicy Chipotle Dressing

If I had to choose a single favorite "fast food," it wouldn't be chicken nuggets, burgers, or even fresh, hot french fries. It would be just about anything from Chipotle. My main faves are the salad (usually with chicken) and burrito bowls, but the dressing is the thing I really crave. So tonight I thought I would try making a burrito bowl with black beans, a sweet corn and cherry-tomato salsa, and a chipotle dressing experiment all over brown rice.

 Altogether, you will need:

1 (dry) cup brown rice

1 can black or pinto beans, or about 3/4 cup dry, soaked overnight and cooked

1 cup fresh or frozen corn

1 cup fresh tomato, chopped and seeded

1 handful of fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped

1 small can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (in the ethnic or Mexican food aisle)

1 teaspoon and 1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice, separated 

1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped 

1 teaspoon cumin

1 packet (about 1 teaspoon) of Truvia, Splenda, or white sugar (or an estimated 2 tsp brown sugar)

White, apple cider, red or rice wine vinegar

White and pale green part of 1 green onion, sliced

1 or 2 avocados for slicing, or guacamole

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Beans & Rice
The black beans are super simple. I soaked some dry beans in the fridge overnight, and crock-potted them all day long on low. If you use this method, be sure to allow enough room in the soaking container for the beans to expand up to 50%, and cover with about two inches of water. Be sure to rinse your beans after soaking, and replace the water before crocking, again making sure there is at least enough to cover the beans with an inch of water.  When they're done, drain and let cool, then combine with about half of your chopped cilantro. I'll be honest, though: I'm just guessing at the "3/4 cup" business. I always make much more black beans than I think I will use in a particular recipe, because I love having some around for quick and easy salads with some chopped bell pepper, onion, cilantro and lemon juice, or some other concoction. This is a lunchtime life-saver.

If you're using canned beans, just rinse them super thoroughly before adding your cilantro and a little drizzle of olive oil. The rice, also, will be super easy: Just cook it according to package directions, adding a little salt and pepper. I like to serve everything on top of the rice, but you can combine the rice and beans if you prefer. I personally think that the rice should be warm, but you can serve the beans either warm or chilled. This might be dictated by your schedule, which probably means you're a busy person, in which case, look at you, hotshot! Good for you for cooking anyway.

Corn & Tomato Salsa
This is a fantastic way to use leftover corn-on-the-cob. Tomatoes have much, much more flavor at room temperature, so take them out an hour or so before making the salsa. For this recipe, you can use fresh or frozen corn, with any sort of fresh tomato that you have handy. If you choose frozen corn, add about a cup to boiling water and cook it for about two minutes. Drain and refrigerate for 10 minutes to a couple of hours before adding the tomatoes, depending on what fits best for your schedule. Combine the corn with a cup of chopped, seeded tomatoes, the green onion, a little salt and pepper, a small drizzle of olive oil and the teaspoon of lemon juice. Refrigerated, this salad-ish salsa will keep for a few days, but is definitely best when fresh.

Finally, the Dressing!

This is the fun part of this meal. I had never cooked anything with chipotle peppers, or adobo sauce before, but they are definitely the key to this recipe. I hear you can buy minced peppers in adobo. I used whole, but since I made this in a food processor, it didn't really matter. If you don't have a food processor or a blender, minced peppers are the way to go. Just whisk together a minced clove of garlic (instead of chopped), a couple tablespoons of olive oil, some salt and pepper, a couple teaspoons of vinegar, the powdered sweetener or sugar, cumin, and about a tablespoon of pepper-and-sauce mixture. You should finely chop the cilantro if you are using this method.

Some of you may be thinking, "Why would you put sugar in this dressing? Isn't it supposed to be spicy?", to which I would answer "Because I said so," and "Yes." Just kidding. I wouldn't say "because I said so." But yes, it is supposed to be hot. The sugar or sweetener enhances the flavor by slightly de-emphasizing the heat of the peppers, letting you focus more on the delicious flavorfulness of it. Isn't that handy?

I scooped up two whole peppers and the sauce mixture that came along with them. In a food processor, I blended the same ingredients as listed above. It was spicy. A bit TOO spicy. So I quartered a cherry tomato, added that, and blended a bit more, just to counteract the heat of it. (I'm sure everybody knows this by now, but if you eat something uncomfortably spicy, don't drink water! Drink milk, or eat a tomato or bit of bread to get rid of that burning feeling). This is a taste-as-you-go recipe, for sure. If you want more heat, add more pepper and sauce, or if it's much too hot, add more fresh tomato to mellow it out. It will be equally tasty either way. Similarly, if it seems too thick to you, add a bit more oil and vinegar. If you have a very basic vinaigrette around, you could also cut it with that, but I wouldn't want to introduce any new herbs to the equation.

I assembled this dish by spooning some cooked brown rice into a pasta bowl (or, paradoxically, "soup plates"), followed by the beans, then the corn salsa. I served the dressing on the side, on the off chance that it would pool menacingly with the brown rice, creating tiny whole-gran firebombs. I also served guac on the side, at which point I really wished I'd gotten tortilla chips. No matter! Chips or no, guac is a delicious addition. You could also serve this with some sliced avocado. Our grocery store had avocados in two states this week: Rock and Mush, so instead we picked up an all-natural packaged guacamole.

There is rice under there somewhere...

This is super delicious. Awesomely delicious. Deliciously awesome. I would never ask that obnoxiously ignorant question, "What DO vegans eat, anyway?!" because I have some idea. But more than that, I can tell you, this is what they/you ought to be eating. Along with everybody else. You could add some grilled chicken if you felt like it, but this is completely nutritious, satisfying, and hearty just the way it is. I hope you'll try it!