Fish Tacos with Cabbage Salsa

Fish Tacos with Cabbage Salsa and Black Beans

Opening up the meat and fish door again has led me to some surprisingly tasty fish recipes. Before my two-year stint as a strict vegetarian, I rarely cooked fish at home. For the last two years, I cooked meat at home twice, both times as part of recipe testing for a publication.

So it's been interesting for me to re-learn how to cook things. We're being careful to purchase sustainably harvested fish—if I'm bringing meat back into my kitchen, it's definitely going to be on my own terms, after all.

I have cabbage and cilantro begging to be used up from the garden, and this recipe was perfect for our tiny head of organic cabbage. My mom suggested this dinner plan, and I somewhat winged it. A bit of Googling, a little bit of Mark Bittman's advice, and an hour later, I had served up a fresh fish taco meal.

Cabbage Salsa

Fish Tacos with Cabbage Salsa

For the salsa:
1 small head cabbage, shredded or cut into thin ribbons (think slaw)
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 large jalapenos, seeded and diced
1/2 large red onion, diced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
juice of 2 limes
salt and pepper to taste

Prep all your ingredients and mix together in a large mixing bowl. Refrigerate until you're ready to serve.

For the tacos (adapted from Mark Bittman's instructions on how to pan-fry white fish fillets):
2 large tilapia filleta (or other white fish; the fillet must be less than 1 inch thick)
2 tablespoons blackening or Cajun seasoning
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil for each fillet

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Meanwhile, combine the flour and seasoning together and dredge the fillet, shaking off the excess. Add the olive oil to the heated pan, and place the dredged fish fillet in the pan. Cook on the first side for about 4 minutes; carefully flip with a spatula and cook until the fillet is opaque and flakes apart easily. Wipe the pan out before cooking the second fillet.

Flake the fish apart and divide into corn tortillas. Top with the cabbage salsa and garnish with Greek yogurt, avocado, Cholula, and cilantro; serve with black beans to round out the meal.

This recipe makes about eight fish tacos on corn, or six on flour tortillas.