Rubios Fish Tacos

Fish tacos are probably the best beachside food EVER. Seriously, there's nothing like sitting on a rooftop bar, looking out over the ocean at sunset, with a pitcher of margaritas, some excellent chips and salsa, and a plate of fish tacos. Mmm...mmm...good! Too bad you can't get any decent fish tacos in Washington, DC.

This recipe is supposed to taste like the fish tacos from Rubios, a popular California eatery. While these were quite tasty, and pretty easy to make, they aren't really authentic Rubios. There wasn't the distinct pink sauce and the batter wasn't quite right. But they were still delicious.

I'd give the recipe a 4 star rating on taste, and a 2 star rating on accuracy. Oh well. I don't know where the original recipe came from, it was just in a random post on Chef2Chef.

Ingredients

• 12 Cod or favorite whitefish fillets (1-1/2 oz ea.)
  
• 12 Tortillas, corn, as thick/fresh as possible
  
  BEER BATTER:
  
• 1 c Flour
  
• 1 c Beer
  
• Garlic powder, pepper to taste
  
  WHITE SAUCE:
  
• 1/2 c Mayonaise
  
• 1/2 c Yogurt
  
  SALSA:
  
• 1 Garlic clove, peeled and minced
  
• 6 Tomatoes, ripe, peeled, seeded and diced
  
• 1/2 Onion, minced
  
• 2 tb Cilantro leaves, chopped, stems removed
  
• 1 Jalapeno chiles, seeded and chopped
  
• 1 1/2 ts Salt
  
• 1/4 ts Pepper
  
• Oil for deep frying
  
  GARNISH:
  
• 1 Head cabbage, green, shredded
  
• 1 Lime, cut into wedges
  

Directions

1. Mix flour with favorite spices such as garlic powder, red or black ground pepper. Stir the flour mixture into the beer and mix until well blended.
   
2. Wash fish by dipping in cold, lightly salted water or water with a little bit of lemon juice added. Be sure fish is completely dry before dipping into batter.
   
3. Prepare salsa; reserve.
   
4. Put the vegetable oil into a deep skillet and bring to 375F. Place fish in a single layer--do not let pieces touch each other. Cook fish until batter is crispy and golden brown.
5. Heat corn tortillas lightly in a skillet or Mexican comal until they are soft and hot.
   
6. To assemble, on each tortilla layer the fish fillet, white sauce, salsa and cabbage. Top it off with a squeeze of lime. Fold tortilla over to serve.
   

We made one change to the salsa & white sauce. I didn't like the "white sauce," so we pureed half of the salsa in a food processor and mixed that in with the sauce. Much tastier. I also think the batter needs a bit of salt, as the fish was pretty bland without the salsa or sauce on top.