Beer-battered fish tacos

Beer-battered fish tacos. Yum!

Any trip to California has a prerequisite fish taco run. This trip was no different! I stayed in Monterey with my foodie friends Alex and Tiffany, and we made a night of it making fish tacos and watching Breaking Bad (seriously, they always get me into a new show whenever I visit).

The perfect fish taco looks something like this:
Two soft corn tortillas, you can tell they are homemade
Fish tenderly cooked (not overcooked, mind you) in some deliciously flavorful marinade
Chopped cilantro
Pico de Gallo

Our version took a slightly different, heavier form. We started by making mayonnaise, rather than using the store-bought version. I'm not sure Alex's exact recipe, but you can find some good ones online. I like to add a bit of lemon juice to mayonnaise to give it some extra zing. He had previously made a chipotle paste by boiling and reducing hot peppers. Alex added that to the mayonnaise, creating a chipotle mayo. For the recipe we based our version on, check out the Barefoot Contessa's site.

We took the codfish (we got it super fresh from the fish market in New Monterey) and coated it in beer batter (see the recipe). I was on salsa duty. Here's what I made for a yummy red cabbage version:


1/2 red cabbage, sliced thinly
1/2 onion, sliced thinly
3-4 tomatoes, diced
3-4 jalepeno peppers, sliced (seeds out unless you want a bite of hotness!)
2-3 garlic cloves, smooshed
1 lemon or lime juice, squeezed fresh
1/4 cup, or as much as you want, cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper