Aishling Moore: This recipe will have you craving fish tacos this weekend

Fish tacos are the type of food I crave all week long, multi-textured with varied temperatures, fresh, lively and deep-fried, please!

Aishling Moore Weekend Food Marking: XX Jillian Bolger: 24/07/26: Plaice tacos: Picture: Chani Anderson

Fish tacos are a routine Sunday lunch in my house. Proper summer grub, made for eating outdoors, sharing with friends and served with cool, crisp drinks.

It’s the type of food I crave all week long, multi-textured with varied temperatures, fresh, lively and deep-fried, please!

This weekend’s recipe uses plaice, which is a perfect option for a fish goujon. Pretty much every fish in the sea would work for a fish taco, so use whatever’s fresh and available to you. Other flat fish like megrim, lemon sole and brill would all be fabulous for this application — skin on or off. I have skinned the plaice fillets here.

If you’re using a round fish like hake or pollock, cut the fish fillets into manageable-sized fish fingers before panko breadcrumbing.

I prefer to serve fish tacos with flour tortillas rather than masa, but I’ll always have a bowl of salted corn tortilla chips on the side for extra crunch and they’re also excellent for dipping and dunking into the various salsas and sauces.

As soon as Irish tomatoes are available, I’ll be making some version of a salsa at home to serve like this, or with golden brown fried fish, grilled fish or meats, or over eggs before or after service. These are all the foods of the summer.

I’ve used a mix of yellow submarine and cherry tomatoes that were grown in Churchfield Community Gardens here in Cork, but use whatever you can get your hands on.

Do not underestimate the importance of salt when working with tomatoes. You want to generously season them. A sprinkle of dried seaweed makes a wonderful addition to these fruits.

For the best results, serve tomatoes at room temperature and slice or dice using a super sharp or serrated knife.

Fish tacos with salsa and herby sour cream

recipe by:Aishling Moore

This weekend’s recipe uses plaice, which is a perfect option for a fish goujon. Pretty much every fish in the sea would work for a fish taco, so use whatever’s fresh and available to you. Other flat fish like megrim, lemon sole and brill would all be fabu

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 10 mins

Total Time

 25 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• For the tomato salsa

• 300g fresh tomatoes

• 1 red chilli finely diced (seeds removed)

• 1tb fresh coriander chopped

• 1 lime juiced

• 1tb golden rapeseed oil

• Sea salt

• For the herby sour crea

• 1 small onion, diced

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 green chilli, finely chopped

• 1 lime juiced

• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil

• 1 large bunch coriander

• 3 tbsp sour cream

• Sea salt

• For the plaice goujons

• 400g plaice goujons

• 90g Plain flour

• 1 egg

• 200ml milk

• 150g panko breadcrumbs

Method

1. To make the salsa, take a sharp, small serrated knife, slice the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds. Finely dice the tomato flesh and place in medium sized mixing bowl.

2. Add the diced red chilli, chopped coriander, lime juice, oil and a good pinch of sea salt. Mix to dress the tomatoes and set aside.

3. For the herby sour cream

4. Place the diced onion, minced garlic, chopped green chill, lime juice, rapeseed oil and salt in a food processor.

5. Blend on high speed until a paste is formed. Scrape down the sides of food processor and add the coriander and sour cream. Blend again on high speed until vivid green and pureed.

6. Taste to adjust seasoning and refrigerate until serving.

7. For the plaice goujons

8. Pre-heat a deep fat fryer to 180 degrees Celsius.

9. Beat the egg and milk in a small bowl.

10. Place both the flour and panko breadcrumbs in a small bowl each. Working in batches toss the fillets of fish through the flour first, next through the milk and egg mixture and finally through the panko breadcrumbs shaking off the excess flour, egg and milk and breadcrumbs at each stage.

11. Working in batches fry for 2 minutes or until Golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with sea salt.

12. To serve, warm tortilla wraps.

13. Place some of the herby sour cream on the base of each wrap, top with a goujon, tomato salsa and finish with a garnish of coriander leaves, your favourite hot sauce and serve with lime wedges.

Fish Tales

To achieve a beautifully coated fish goujon I like to blend a percentage of the panko breadcrumbs to ensure a more evenly coated result.

These goujons can be made a day in advanced; just store in a single layer in the fridge.

The goujons will also freeze well provided the fish is fresh and well coated in the breadcrumbs. Layer between sheets of parchment paper to
prevent from sticking together.

These goujons can baked in a preheated oven or shallow fried in a pan if you’d rather not deep fry.

If you’re not a fan of coriander you can swap for flat leaf parsley in both the salsa and sour cream.

The herby sour cream will keep for a couple of days in the fridge and is great will grilled fish.