Fish Tacos with Cilantro Mayo (Saturday, May 14, 2011)

It's weird how one little ingredient can take you on a culinary adventure.  I bought some French Breakfast Radish at the Tower Grove Farmer's market in an attempt to force myself to learn more about cooking with radishes.  I have several varieties growing in the garden and they can be grown in small bits of space while other larger plants mature.  So as the season progresses I will be inter-planting radish among all of my other vegetables to make use of all the space.  Considering I rarely eat radishes and never cook with them, some experience was needed.  In my search around the web for ideas, I ran across two recipes by Martha Stewart (known mostly for her excellent investing tactics, but she also cooks).  One recipe was for some fish tacos that had some sort of radish salad on them with a salsa verde.  Another was a recipe for quick pickled radishes.  I opted to make pickled radishes but considering the vast amount of tilapia fillets in the freezer I thought they could be worked into a fish taco that would supersede Martha's.  I was also inspired by the new plethora of "Baja Taco" joints in the Dallas area, two of which I visited when I was there last.  These are small tacos, usually with some purple cabbage rather than lettuce and queso fresco.  But, what makes them addictive is the sauce, which is a garlic cream sauce that gives the tacos supernatural powers.

I began by thinly slicing my radishes along with some onion and pickling them in rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt.  That's as much care as I took with the radishes. Which, might I remind you, "Pickled Radish" was the first domino to fall in the sequence of inspirational thought.  Meanwhile, I marinated my tilapia fillets in olive oil, lime juice, salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder and chopped garlic.  When these had marinated about 30 minutes I broiled them in the oven for just a few minutes on each side.  For other toppings, I shredded some cucumber for a fresh crunch, coarsely chopped some cilantro, julienned some spicy peppers and crumbled some feta cheese (I would have used queso fresco if it was available at the store).  The key to the addictiveness of these tacos was the "mayonesa de cilantro."  I made a fresh mayo consisting of  one egg, a cup of canola oil, garlic, onion, lime juice, cumin, salt and of course a large handful of cilantro.  First, everything but half of the oil and the lime juice was blended.  Then, while blending, the lime juice and remainder of the oil was added slowly.  To top it all off I went the extra mile and gave the corn tortillas a little extra crunch by brushing one side with olive oil and toasting them in a pan.

This recipe is one that I would add to the menu at my hypothetical future restaurant.  It's a customizable crowd pleaser.  Although there are many components each one only took minimal effort and the total cook time was short.  The fish only takes about 6 minutes under a broiler.  I absolutely loved these tacos.  Erin did too.  She said "I think you just redefined taco night."  I'd have to agree.  The toppings were all non-traditional, but I still think this dish is accessible. Even kids would love these.  The acidic crunch of the radish, coolness of the cucumber and the creamy spice of the mayo made these so full of flavor I can't wait to eat the leftovers.  I was also happy with the feta cheese rather than queso fresco. Feta cheese has that little tartness to it that really went well with the raw garlic flavor and finished off the bite very nicely.  Let me recommend that everyone get a little more creative on taco night and do something a little less normal.  Tacos are a great way to make use of many of the ingredients you have around, you just have to be creative in how you use them.  And that's what's cooking!