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I am cooking a birthday dinner Saturday night. The guest of honor is the husband half of our STJ travelling friends.

He has requested fish tacos, which is something I also like but have never tried at home.

I am searching for recipes and found some I can work with.

I am going to batter and fry the fish and make a mango salsa.

What I am struggling with is the sauce that is drizzled on top and the slaw part.

In my memory, the slaw on the fist tacos was dressed with something. All the recipes I have read call for just plain cabage. Can this be right/the norm?

I am at a loss over the sauce. It must be more than just sour cream.

Do any cooks have a suggestion or an idea for either dressing up the cabage or the sauce?

my memory is that the cabbage is just the cabbage. maybe a mix of red and green. now as for the sauce .. oh Becky!!!!!!!!

ok look! here are the ones I had at Ocean Grill

I've always had them served with a garlic aioli type sauce. Here's one recipe. I'm sure you can add other herbs if you'd like...

Aioli Sauce:

1/2 c. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soy sauce
2 1/2 c. olive oil (thin with corn oil)
3 cloves garlic
2 eggs
2 egg yolks

Put first 6 ingredients in blender and blend at low to medium speed. Slowly drizzle oil as blender runs. Sauce will thicken. Don't over blend; sauce will thin. Set aside to serve over cooked fish.


OR here's another version: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/recipe_aioli.htm

I used this recipe as a base recently; delicious. Any variation will do....


Baja Sauce

Ingredients:
# 12 ounces mayonnaise
# 12 ounces sour cream
# 1 1/2 cups cilantro leaves
# jalapenos, seeded and chopped (recipe calls for 6, I say "to taste")
# 3 avocados, pitted and pulp extracted
# 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Instructions:
# In a food processor, blend cilantro and jalapenos
# Add remaining ingredients and blend
# Keep refrigerated until serving

Maryanne's sauce looks right. I've also done it with just mayo, sour cream, lime juice, and chipotle powder blended.

For the cabbage, I toss it with a little rice wine vinegar and lightly salt it, then let it drain for about 15 minutes.

Finally, I like to add guacamole to my fish tacos.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Exactly what I was looking for.

MB - it is the Ocean Grill fish tacos that got this whole thing started.

If I can keep the hounds at bay, I will attempt a food porn picture.

That looks awesome! I'd agree with avocado wedges and add some pico de gallo http://www.mex-recipes.com/pico-de-gallo-recipes.html

You can add a bit of diced pickles to the pico as well

There is an unbelievably easy recipe for fish tacos on epicurious.com......look for the one that has chiles in adobo sauce, very spicy. Do it just like they say. This site has customer reviews and it is a top rated recipe.....Enjoy...couldn't be easier...

I agree that Maryanne's looks "correct" and tasty. The rice wine vinegar is what I use on the cabbage as well. A mix of green and red has always worked for me. You can also use lime juice on the cabbage to 'soften' it a little and add more acidity.

My 10-yr old daughter is a ranch dressing freak, so I'll take bottled ranch dressing (usually the light or no-fat versions for my waistline) and add chipotle powder, chopped fresh cilantro, a little garlic, and some of that lime juice.

I also prefer to grill the fish, or 'grill' it in a grill pan on the stove.

KT

Oh...and I didn't see anyone mention this, but ALWAYS use corn tortillas for fish tacos! No flour tortillas allowed. Fresh lime wedges are also required. Good luck.

The fish taco birthday meal was a success!

I made a variation of Maryanne’s sauce. I used chipotle in adobo instead of the jalapenos. I don’t know why, it just appealed to me more than the jalapeño.

I was pressed for time so I bought shredded red cabbage. A la Liamsaunt, I tossed it with rice wine vinegar and it was perfect.

The ingredients in the mango salsa recipe I used were greatly out of porportion, thankfully I have enough mango to balance everything out.

I intended to do half the fish grilled and the other half fried but everyone voted for fried only. The store had frozen portions of Mahi Mahi and cut in half, they were the perfect size.

No food porn pictures. By the time we sat down to eat, it was dark and I was too hungry to carry my plate back in the house for a photo shoot.

The main dinner topic was the next STJ trip. We hope to have our travel dates set in the short term and then the villa shopping will begin.

I'm glad it was a success! I LOVE fish tacos.

I didn't have my first fish taco until 2 or so years ago. Now I order it every chance I get.

They were really quite easy to make, I was pleasantly surprised. I foresee fish tacos in our regular rotation this summer.