Hillbilly Steaks
Dr. BBQ
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2006
- Messages
- 2,478
Prior to my trip to San Diego last year, I did a bit of research on the local fun and food that I should try, and activities to partake in during my stay. All signs pointed to the famous Fish Taco. Shortly after our arrival we found a place within walking distance and made our way up to try out the famous dish. They were everything we had hoped for, and then some. The place we went to served us up a couple big tortillas filled to the edges with lightly battered fish-can't remember what type they used- and topped with a home made pico and island type sauce. They were also topped with plain shredded cabbage. We had seen the tacos....and they were good. :love:
So anyways, to the real point of this post. It wasn't long after my trip to San Diego that I tried my hand at developing my very own recipe for the Tacos de pescado. I have developed a pretty good recipe, but wanted to get some opinions from you guys on how it could be made better, and more importantly some good suggestions for some side items to go with them.
For the fish, I prefer to use fresh swordfish steaks. The guy at my local SEA PRODUCTS tried to steer me away from using swordfish, saying it was too strong of a fish. He suggested that I use tilapia, but I knew that my intentions were to marinate and grill the fish, suprise suprise huh? If you have ever tried to grill tilapia, you know that its a very soft and flaky fish. Even with the special fish/grill contraptions you can buy, it still can be messy. Anyways, I stuck with the swordfish and picked up 4 or 5 nice big thick steaks. When I got to the end result, I was very glad I made the choice. Keep in mind that swordfish is supposed to be a somewhat Robust and strong flavored fish, but man when you do it right and grill it, its simply delicious.
I'm not a huge fan of fresh onions and tomato's, so obviously fresh pico' de galio isn't on the top of my list. So for my fish tacos, I decided to replace the pico with my Mango Salsa. This is something that I have been making for quite some time and the stuff is great. Its really easy to make, however slicing up mango's can be sort of a pain in the ass if you don't have your technique down. :laugh: I liked the shredded cabbage on the original fish taco, so that stayed on the ingredient list. For now anyways. Its my intentions to do a little more with the cabbage for the final master recipe of the Hillbilly Steaks Fish Taco. Perhaps a slight pickling of the cabbage mixed with some small slices of cucumber.
To the recipe in progress. Adjust the amounts for however many you are trying to feed, but what I have listed should be good for 4-6 people.
For the fish, marinade, and cooking instructions.
Fresh Swordfish Fillets. 4-6 fillets, I think 2-3 lbs is what it comes out to.
I like to marinate the fish at least 24 hours before serving. I lay the swordfish steaks out on a place and brush them down with olive oil, then season with fresh sea salt, and fresh ground black pepper. Do this to both sides. Once the fillets are oiled up and seasoned properly, put them all together in a big ziplock bag and refrigerate. I also like to periodically take the bag out of the fridge and move them around in the bag so the marinade and juices that will accumulate get mixed around. This step probably isn't necessary, but I'm kinda OCD about it, so I have to
Grilling the fish.
I like to grill the swordfish fillets over medium, to medium high heat. I wouldn't get the grill as hot as I would for cooking a steak, but they can handle a good amount of heat. Especially if they are pretty thick. Getting a nice char on the outside adds a nice touch to the flavor. Another bonus to using swordfish is how well it holds up on the grill. Its a nice solid fish and won't fall apart on you when you try to flip it etc. Do make sure your grilling surface is nice and clean though, cause it will stick a bit more if its not.
For the cooking time, many would probably argue that you should only leave the fish on the grill for 5 minutes per side max, but I tend to disagree. Here's the deal. I always like to serve my meals hot. Especially when we have guests at the house. Nothing gets under my skin more then grilling up that perfect steak, and then seeing people piss around for 10 minutes or whatever, only to sit down to a steak that has had a chance to cool. Side dishes and plates should ALWAYS be prepared and ready to go before the main dish is served. Again, OCD on my part, but if you want perfection, timing is crucial. Anyways, my point is this. I like to have all the toppings and sides for the taco's laid out and ready to go. In most cases, people will be skeptical of the fish taco at first and chances are they will make a small one to try it out. But you can count on it that your guests will make multiple trips back to fix up more.
I like to go ahead and grill up all the swordfish steaks at one time, but once they have been on the heat for 5 minutes or so per side, go ahead and remove 2-3 fillets for prep, but take the remaining steaks on the grill and just move them away from the direct heat and close the lid. It will be a short period of time before you are back to the grill needing more. But my advice is don't take all the fish off at one time.
When you remove the fish from the grill, put the steaks on a cutting board and then go ahead and remove the outer skin. Then I like to chop it up really good and into small pieces. Once you have done this, add a couple small chunks of butter and some lemon juice. Mix this all up until the butter melts into the mixture, and now the meat is ready for the tacos. Your guests can take it right off the cutting board if they like. Best part is that you won't have too much out at one time, and the steaks you still have waiting for you on the grill are staying nice and warm.
For the toppings.
Make these all up the day before and have them ready to go. Especially the mango salsa. Its much better when it has a chance to sit for a day.
Mango Salsa
2-3 fresh Mango's. The mango's should be fairly soft, but not too much. Dice up into small pieces.
1/2 red onion-diced very very fine.
1/2 Habenero-meat only, remove seeds. (if you and your guests are fans of the heat, increase the number of habeneros and leave the seeds in)
Fresh Cilantro- sorry, I don't have a measured amount. Chop it up and mix it with the final mixture until you have a good amount. Use can quite a bit, but your salsa should be a balanced color of orange and green.
Juice from one lime.
Splash of orange juice.
salt to taste.
** in a small saute pan, pour in a little bit of olive oil and cook the onion and habenero over medium-high heat until the onion starts to soften up a bit. Then pour it into the rest of the mixture of mango, cilantro, orange juice, and lime. Mix everything up well, and refrigerate.
Also, have some fresh cabbage sliced up very thin and in kinda long strips ready for when you serve the Taco's.
Its also good to have a few different choices of some bottled hot sauce to top with. Santava is a good choice and easy to find.
As most of my recipe threads are, this has been quite winded. I hope you guys have at least enjoyed reading it.
What I would like from the group is some creative suggestions on what I can do to improve on this recipe.
More specifically...
Shredded Cabbage- although I do kinda like this on the taco's, shredded cabbage is quite plain. I was thinking there could be improvements made here.
what to serve with the tacos as a side item??? Grilled veggies???
Wine- really want to make this a gourmet meal? has to be paired with that perfect bottle.
Almost forgot, the tortillas. I like to just use the small round flour tortillas to serve these on. One idea I had though was to make these up and roll them up tight kinda like an egg roll and then fry them up. they would have to be rolled small and tight, but it would make a tasty appetizer.
Hope you guys enjoy. I will actually be making these up tonight/tomorrow, so I will try and post some pictures to go with this thread.
E
So anyways, to the real point of this post. It wasn't long after my trip to San Diego that I tried my hand at developing my very own recipe for the Tacos de pescado. I have developed a pretty good recipe, but wanted to get some opinions from you guys on how it could be made better, and more importantly some good suggestions for some side items to go with them.
For the fish, I prefer to use fresh swordfish steaks. The guy at my local SEA PRODUCTS tried to steer me away from using swordfish, saying it was too strong of a fish. He suggested that I use tilapia, but I knew that my intentions were to marinate and grill the fish, suprise suprise huh? If you have ever tried to grill tilapia, you know that its a very soft and flaky fish. Even with the special fish/grill contraptions you can buy, it still can be messy. Anyways, I stuck with the swordfish and picked up 4 or 5 nice big thick steaks. When I got to the end result, I was very glad I made the choice. Keep in mind that swordfish is supposed to be a somewhat Robust and strong flavored fish, but man when you do it right and grill it, its simply delicious.
I'm not a huge fan of fresh onions and tomato's, so obviously fresh pico' de galio isn't on the top of my list. So for my fish tacos, I decided to replace the pico with my Mango Salsa. This is something that I have been making for quite some time and the stuff is great. Its really easy to make, however slicing up mango's can be sort of a pain in the ass if you don't have your technique down. :laugh: I liked the shredded cabbage on the original fish taco, so that stayed on the ingredient list. For now anyways. Its my intentions to do a little more with the cabbage for the final master recipe of the Hillbilly Steaks Fish Taco. Perhaps a slight pickling of the cabbage mixed with some small slices of cucumber.
To the recipe in progress. Adjust the amounts for however many you are trying to feed, but what I have listed should be good for 4-6 people.
For the fish, marinade, and cooking instructions.
Fresh Swordfish Fillets. 4-6 fillets, I think 2-3 lbs is what it comes out to.
I like to marinate the fish at least 24 hours before serving. I lay the swordfish steaks out on a place and brush them down with olive oil, then season with fresh sea salt, and fresh ground black pepper. Do this to both sides. Once the fillets are oiled up and seasoned properly, put them all together in a big ziplock bag and refrigerate. I also like to periodically take the bag out of the fridge and move them around in the bag so the marinade and juices that will accumulate get mixed around. This step probably isn't necessary, but I'm kinda OCD about it, so I have to
Grilling the fish.
I like to grill the swordfish fillets over medium, to medium high heat. I wouldn't get the grill as hot as I would for cooking a steak, but they can handle a good amount of heat. Especially if they are pretty thick. Getting a nice char on the outside adds a nice touch to the flavor. Another bonus to using swordfish is how well it holds up on the grill. Its a nice solid fish and won't fall apart on you when you try to flip it etc. Do make sure your grilling surface is nice and clean though, cause it will stick a bit more if its not.
For the cooking time, many would probably argue that you should only leave the fish on the grill for 5 minutes per side max, but I tend to disagree. Here's the deal. I always like to serve my meals hot. Especially when we have guests at the house. Nothing gets under my skin more then grilling up that perfect steak, and then seeing people piss around for 10 minutes or whatever, only to sit down to a steak that has had a chance to cool. Side dishes and plates should ALWAYS be prepared and ready to go before the main dish is served. Again, OCD on my part, but if you want perfection, timing is crucial. Anyways, my point is this. I like to have all the toppings and sides for the taco's laid out and ready to go. In most cases, people will be skeptical of the fish taco at first and chances are they will make a small one to try it out. But you can count on it that your guests will make multiple trips back to fix up more.
I like to go ahead and grill up all the swordfish steaks at one time, but once they have been on the heat for 5 minutes or so per side, go ahead and remove 2-3 fillets for prep, but take the remaining steaks on the grill and just move them away from the direct heat and close the lid. It will be a short period of time before you are back to the grill needing more. But my advice is don't take all the fish off at one time.
When you remove the fish from the grill, put the steaks on a cutting board and then go ahead and remove the outer skin. Then I like to chop it up really good and into small pieces. Once you have done this, add a couple small chunks of butter and some lemon juice. Mix this all up until the butter melts into the mixture, and now the meat is ready for the tacos. Your guests can take it right off the cutting board if they like. Best part is that you won't have too much out at one time, and the steaks you still have waiting for you on the grill are staying nice and warm.
For the toppings.
Make these all up the day before and have them ready to go. Especially the mango salsa. Its much better when it has a chance to sit for a day.
Mango Salsa
2-3 fresh Mango's. The mango's should be fairly soft, but not too much. Dice up into small pieces.
1/2 red onion-diced very very fine.
1/2 Habenero-meat only, remove seeds. (if you and your guests are fans of the heat, increase the number of habeneros and leave the seeds in)
Fresh Cilantro- sorry, I don't have a measured amount. Chop it up and mix it with the final mixture until you have a good amount. Use can quite a bit, but your salsa should be a balanced color of orange and green.
Juice from one lime.
Splash of orange juice.
salt to taste.
** in a small saute pan, pour in a little bit of olive oil and cook the onion and habenero over medium-high heat until the onion starts to soften up a bit. Then pour it into the rest of the mixture of mango, cilantro, orange juice, and lime. Mix everything up well, and refrigerate.
Also, have some fresh cabbage sliced up very thin and in kinda long strips ready for when you serve the Taco's.
Its also good to have a few different choices of some bottled hot sauce to top with. Santava is a good choice and easy to find.
As most of my recipe threads are, this has been quite winded. I hope you guys have at least enjoyed reading it.
What I would like from the group is some creative suggestions on what I can do to improve on this recipe.
More specifically...
Shredded Cabbage- although I do kinda like this on the taco's, shredded cabbage is quite plain. I was thinking there could be improvements made here.
what to serve with the tacos as a side item??? Grilled veggies???
Wine- really want to make this a gourmet meal? has to be paired with that perfect bottle.
Almost forgot, the tortillas. I like to just use the small round flour tortillas to serve these on. One idea I had though was to make these up and roll them up tight kinda like an egg roll and then fry them up. they would have to be rolled small and tight, but it would make a tasty appetizer.
Hope you guys enjoy. I will actually be making these up tonight/tomorrow, so I will try and post some pictures to go with this thread.E
