Fish Tacos With Corn Salsa

This is a perfect dish for summer: light, fresh and really flavorful. The corn salsa can be heated if you like your tacos warmer, or for those blistering days when the idea of putting more heat in your mouth is enough to make you think of swooning, it can be eaten chilled for a great contrast with the warm fish. Very, very tasty! The recipe looks like it calls for a lot of chili powder in the cornmeal batter for the fish, but it doesn't actually come out tasting extremely spicy.


Fish Tacos With Corn Salsa

For the fish tacos:
1 1/2 lbs tilapia, cut into 2-inch pieces (catfish, flounder, or salmon would also work)
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ancho chile powder
2 tbsp olive oil
10 medium-sized flour tortillas
Sour cream
2 limes, cut into quarters

For the salsa:
3 ears fresh corn, COOKED then chilled
1 small red bell pepper
3/4 pint cherry tomatoes
1/2 small red onion
OPTIONAL: 1 or 2 minced jalapeno peppers, minus the seeds
1 1/2 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp soy sauce


Start by making the salsa. Cut the corn off the cobs and toss it into a medium sized mixing bowl. Dice the red bell pepper into smallish pieces, cut the tomatoes into 1/4s, dice the onion, and mix all that with the corn. Pour the parsley and soy sauce over the veggies, and stir until everything is well mixed. Sit that in the fridge to let the flavors meld a little while you do the rest. You can do the salsa up to a day in advance, then just pull it out of the fridge again (and heat if desired) when you're ready to serve.

For the tacos, mix the cornmeal and the next four ingredients on the list in a small bowl. Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat, and when it's hot dredge your fish in the cornmeal mixture to get it coated on all sides, then drop it in the pan. Each piece will only need about 2 minutes on each side, just enough to get the fish white and flaky, then remove the fish to a plate with a paper towel on it to soak up excess oil. Repeat until all of the fish pieces have been fried.

Heat the tortillas in a microwave, covered with a damp paper towel to keep them from drying out.

To serve, dip several spoonfuls of salsa onto a tortilla in a line, add several pieces of the fish, and finish it with a dollop of sour cream spread out evenly over your line of fillings and a squeeze of lime juice. Roll it up burrito style, and it's ready to eat!

Servings: 4-5 people at two tacos each (so 8-10 tacos total)