Fish tacos à la Taqueria del Pacifico

As promised in this post, this is my wife's recipe and method for making fish tacos like the glorious ones served at the erstwhile TdP:

For soft tacos with fried fish inside: Mix flour with some salt, then add warm beer to about the consistency of pancake batter (maybe just a wee bit thicker). Let it rest for 10 minutes. In the meanwhile, heat up vegetable oil several inches deep in a pot to 375˚. Once all is ready, dunk fish pieces (I used tilapia this last time) in the batter and deep fry until golden/brown. I use a candy/deep fry thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature. If you put too many pieces of fish in at once the temperature will drop. Let the temperature come back up between batches as needed. Once they're done frying, drain them on paper towels. Serve in corn tortillas.

For the crispy tacos: Prepare the batter and oil as above. Then prepare the taco: a few pieces of fish go in 2 corn tortillas, spoon some batter in for extra fried goodness. Then fold up the taco (see photo for the shape) and hold it in shape with a pair of tongs. (You might want to wear an oven mitt, the tongs may get hot!). Dip the whole taco in the oil. After a little bit (maybe 30 seconds - 1 minute?) you can let go with the tongs, since the taco will be fried into shape. Keep frying it until it looks like you want it to. Then drain on paper towels.

Condiments: I like to serve these with condiments on the side:

lime quarters (of course)
cabbage, thinly sliced
cilantro
salsa
crema
guacamole or avocado
red onion in lime juice (slice it up and put it in a strainer, pour boiling water over it, then soak in lime juice with some salt)

I have to give credit to TdP for the crispy taco idea and to the cookbook Cocina de la Familia by Marilyn Tausend. This is really their recipe; I made only minor tweaks.

The photo, again:

HI,

IF Helen of Troy could launch a thousand ships. There is no counting how many will attempt your recipe!

Thanks for the effort!

Regards,