As I sit here and write this, it is -10°c outside. This hasn’t been the worst winter I’ve ever seen, but when compounded with everything else, it seems never-ending. Like a lot of other people, I am craving warmer days and sunshine. Unfortunately, I can’t change the weather, but I can make summer food to cure those winter blues. These Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa are that cure. Every bite is like a little taste of your own personal summer. You can almost feel the sunshine. Let’s get to it.
Mango Salsa
The first step in making these fish tacos is to make the mango salsa. You can use store-bought salsa if you want, but you won’t get that same fresh summery flavour. If you have the time, make the salsa. It’s worth the effort. If you don’t like or can’t find mango, it can be substituted with pineapple, peaches, or oranges.
Ingredients
The salsa ingredients are mango, red onion, lime juice and zest, cilantro, cumin, garlic, grape tomato, kosher salt, and pepper. I didn’t add anything spicy to the salsa because the tacos have chipotle lime mayo on them and fresh jalapeno. Of course, if you want to slice up a jalapeno or habanero and add it to the salsa, go for it.
Cutting The Mango
Cutting the mango is the trickiest part of making this salsa. You can peel the mango, cut it into thin slices, cut those slices into sticks, then cut those sticks into small cubes but doing that will take a lot more time than the technique I’m about to describe. Stand the mango up on your cutting board and cut the two sides off. There will be about a half-inch pit in the middle that you can’t cut through. Take those sides and make small even slices in the flesh but not through the peel. Rotate the mango by 90° and make more slices the same width apart. Push up on the mango’s bottom to make it look like a porcupine and cut the little squares away from the skin. The only thing to keep in mind when doing this is that you do not want to cut through the skin. The mango won’t pop up properly if you do. Once you get the sides of the mango diced, go back to the pit and cut off any excess fruit and dice it.
Finishing The Salsa
Put the diced mango in a mixing bowl, mince some onion, dice the tomatoes, chop the cilantro, and mince the garlic. Put all the ingredients in the mixing bowl, including the cumin, olive oil, salt, pepper, lime zest and juice. Stir. Cove the salsa with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for an hour before serving.
Ingredients
- 1 cup diced mango 1 mango
- 1/4 cup minced red onion
- 1 lime juice and zest
- 1/4 cup diced grape tomatoes
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 teaspoon garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for an hour before serving.
Chipotle Lime Mayo
What is Chipotle?
Chipotle peppers are smoked and dried jalapenos. You can buy them in three ways, as the whole dried pepper, dried and ground, or canned and packed in adobo. Adobo is like a Spanish pickling liquid. For this recipe, use the canned ones. I find they have more flavour and are easier to use than the dried ones because you don’t have to rehydrate them. You can buy canned chipotles in most grocery stores by the taco kits. You won’t use the whole can for this recipe, but any leftovers can be frozen and used later.
Making the chipotle lime mayo
To make the chipotle lime mayo, cut two chipotles as small as you can and combine them with mayonnaise, lime juice and a bit of salt. Put the chipotle lime mayo in a small dish or squeeze bottle and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes before serving. If you’d like, you can use sour cream instead of mayonnaise.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons chopped chipotle in adobo
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes before serving.
The Fish
For my fish tacos, I used halibut, but you can use literally any fish you’d like. You may need to change how you cook the fish and cooking times depending on the fish you use, but other than that, everything can stay the same. If you’d like to, you could also use shrimp or scallops in place of the fish.
Preparing the fish
To prepare the fish, again, in my case, it is halibut; cut it into thin strips and season it with salt and pepper. Heat a medium non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Add a bit of oil to the pan, then the fish. Cook the fish until it is very light brown, then flip it and brown it on the other side. It should take two to three minutes per side. You have to make sure to let your pan heat fully before adding the fish; otherwise, your fish may boil in its own juices. Finish the fish by squeezing the juice from half a lime over it.
Making The Fish Tacos
To assemble the fish tacos, warm six corn tortillas and spread some sliced avocado out onto them. Put the fish on the avocado, then the mango salsa on the fish. Top the fish with thinly sliced jalapeno and chipotle mayo. Finish the tacos with pickled red onion and a few leaves of fresh cilantro. Serve the tacos with lime wedges on the side.
Pickled Red Onion
I had a jar of pickled red onions in my fridge that I made a few weeks ago, so I don’t have a recipe to share. The pickled onions do add a lot to the tacos, so I suggest making some. At a glance, this recipe seems good, but I haven’t made it myself. I usually eyeball my ingredients when pickling onions. Still, if I had to guess, I would say I usually use 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons of water, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 2 teaspoons of kosher salt, and 1/2 cup of thinly sliced red onion. Put all the ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, then turn off and cool. Store the pickled onions in the fridge for up to a month. Again, this is not a tried and true recipe, just an estimation of what I usually do.
Ingredients
- 200 g halibut fillet
- 2 tsp cooking oil
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/8 tsp black pepper
- 2 limes
- 6 corn tortillas 6-inch
- 1/2 cup mango salsa
- 1 jalapeno, thinly sliced
- 1 avocado, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup cilantro leaves
- 1/4 cup pickled red onion
- 1/4 cup chipotle lime mayo
Instructions
- Slice the halibut into 6 evenly sized strips. Heat a medium non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Add the oil to the pan, season with fish with salt and pepper, and cook on both sides for 3 minutes or until lightly brown. Finish the fish by squeezing the juice from half a lime onto it.
- Warm the tortillas in a pan, in the microwave in a tortilla warmer, or in a 350°f oven, wrapped in foil for 10 minutes.
- Put the fish on the warmed tortillas, top with the remaining ingredients. Serve with lime wedges on the side.
The Wrap Up
Fish tacos are the epitome of summer food. When paired with fresh mango salsa, you’ll feel like you’re eating pure sunshine, but in a good way. At first glance, this recipe may seem complex and like there are many steps, but really you’re only making the salsa, and the chipotle mayo, then cooking some fish for a few minutes. You can even make the salsa and mayo a day ahead to cut down on prep time. If like me, you would like a little break from the cold weather and a preview of what’s to come in a few months, these fish tacos may be the exact thing you need. Try them for yourself.
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