Fish Tacos with Ontario Corn Salsa

Summertime is the season for food festivals, and I don't think there's any other dish that I associate with food festivals more than a delicious fried fish taco! Some of the best fish tacos I've consumed have been in the summertime, with friends and loved ones, enjoying a Toronto food festival. While food festivals are less my jam these days (or maybe just the long lines and lack of shaded spaces for my poor fair skin), I still love to enjoy a great fish taco in the summer inspired by my festival-going days, but now I make my own! Combining crispy fried fish with one of my favourite summer flavours in Ontario, fresh corn, my fish tacos are a great balance of flavour and texture, and are perfect for a hot summer night!

The corn salsa is key in this recipe, providing that much-needed hit of sweetness, freshness, acidity, spice, and texture to counteract the heaviness of the fried fish. The sweetness is found in those sweet and juicy Ontario corn kernels (there's nothing like them, is there?!) that are really the star of this salsa, and maybe even the whole dish! To dress my fresh grilled corn I like to add a pop of freshness from cilantro and tomatoes, some acidity and heat thanks to pickled jalapeños and their pickling brine, as well as lime, chilli powder, and red onion.

To balance out the rest of the flavours for our final taco, we turn to our toppings! Chipotle-Lime Aioli is a condiment that has become just as essential in my fridge as mustard and pickles, and it also works incredible in this taco to add a smokey and creamy element that ties the whole dish together. The remainder of the toppings can be adjusted based on your own personal preferences, but I enjoy the crunch from thinly sliced red cabbage, as well as lots of fresh cilantro, and of course hot sauce!

Make your corn salsa in advance to speed this dish up. Your tacos will come together so quickly you can even make them on a weeknight to give yourself a special mid-week treat! I hope you enjoy them as much as Chris and I did!

Ingredients:
For the Ontario Corn Salsa
3 ears Ontario corn, husks and silks removed
1/4 - 1/2 cup pickled jalapeños, finely chopped (adjust the amount depending on the level of heat you prefer)
1 Tbsp pickling brine from pickled jalapeños
juice from 3/4 of a medium lime
1/4 cup red onion
1 small tomato, small dice
1/2 tsp chilli powder
light drizzle of olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

For the Fried Fish
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 Tbsp paprika
1/2 Tbsp chilli powder
2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
kosher salt
3/4 cup beer (lager works great!)
1 large egg
peanut oil, for frying 
1 lb cod, cut into 8 even pieces (may substitute other white fish)

To Dress Your Tacos

6-8 corn tortillas

Metro Irresistibles Chipotle-Lime Aioli

fresh cilantro

red cabbage, thinly sliced

hot sauce

Directions:
Ontario Corn Salsa

1. Preheat BBQ or grill pan and lightly oil. Place corn directly on grill and cook about 2 min per side. Cool.
2. Cut corn niblets from cob and place in a medium bowl. Reserve your corn cobs for another use (how about making corn broth for a chowder!).
3. Add pickled jalapeños and pickling brine, lime juice, red onion, tomato, chilli powder, and a drizzle of olive oil. Taste and season with salt and pepper, as needed. Cover and transfer to fridge until ready to dress tacos.

Fried Fish

1. In a medium bowl, combine cake flour, paprika, chilli powder, black pepper, and kosher salt. Transfer half of the mixture to a large bowl.
2. Add the beer and egg to the mixture in the large bowl, and whisk until smooth.
3. In a large pot (I used a dutch oven) or wok, add peanut oil so it reaches 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up the pot. Heat oil to 350ºF. Preheat oven or toaster oven to 250ºF, and line 2 baking sheets with paper towel and a wire rack. Place one in the oven or toaster oven and the other at the stove.
4. Place all of the fish pieces in the large bowl with the beer batter and stir to coat.
5. Working one at a time, pick up a piece of fish and allow any excess batter to drain off. Place into the medium bowl with the dry mixture, and toss to lightly coat. Carefully place in the hot oil (letting the fish fall away from you) and fry until evenly golden, about 3-4 minutes. Place on the stovetop wire rack to drain, and lightly salt. Transfer to the prepared pan in the oven to keep warm. Continue with remaining fish, making sure to not crowd the oil.*

* I like to work with two pieces of fish frying in the oil at a time. Crowding the oil will drop the temperature, resulting in an oily batter.

Assembly

1. To assemble your tacos, heat tortillas (one at a time) for 1-2 min per side in a medium pan at high heat. 
2. Squeeze about 1-2 Tbsp Irresistibles Chipotle-Lime Aioli on top of tortilla, and top with fried fish, corn salsa, cilantro, cabbage, and hot sauce. Enjoy!

This post was created in partnership with Metro Ontario. 

Listening To:
Let's Eat Grandma - Falling Into Me

Perfecting Potato Latkes (Updated)

Every Chanukah is a new opportunity to step up your potato latke game. Though each year my latkes get a little better, it wasn't until this year that they just may have reached the point of perfection. I'm not going to bore you with my history of eating and making latkes, I'm just going to get right to the point and tell you straight up my tips and tricks for creating potato latke excellence. 

Start With A Great Latke Recipe As Your Guide

I personally think that Bon Appétit has a fantastic recipe for potato latkes that I like to use as a general guide. It's really hard to list exact ingredient amounts for latkes, because it all depends on the size and flavour of your potatoes. Use the recipe as a rough guide for which ingredients to use and how much you should use of each one. I don't bother with measuring my ingredients anymore, I just go by sight and memory, and after you make your first batch, that's all you'll ever need too. While Bon Appétit's recipe is great, I adjusted it slightly by mincing my onion, and doing 2 Tbsp plain breadcrumbs, and 2 Tbsp panko breadcrumbs, instead of the grated onion and 1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs listed in their recipe. Check out their recipe and method here! 

Start With The Right Potatoes

Step one to making the ultimate latkes is using the correct potatoes. Though my dear love, Ina Garten likes to use a combo of both Yukon Gold and Russets, it has been in my experience to always go for all Russets. I have to admit, that the only times that I've strayed from Russet potatoes, I've gone pure Yukon Gold, so perhaps Ina knows something I don't, and maybe (maaaaybe) next year I'll give her method a try. Russets tend to be the favourite for potato latkes thanks to their high-starch, and low-moisture content, which is key in achieving a crisp latke. 

Grate Your Potatoes

Though everyone has their preference, I love a nice lacy, grated potato for my latkes. I adore the texture and think that it delivers the best crispness on the outside, while still leaving the interior of the pancake soft and tender. Grating by hand is fine if you're doing only one or two potatoes, but any more and you may never want to make latkes ever again. I recommend lugging out your food processor to do do the work for you. Swap in the grating attachment and see how quickly your potatoes are grated! Dare I say, it's a "grate" tool! (I can't stop with the dad jokes!)

Add Onion

While I'm sure there are polarizing thoughts on whether to add onion to your latkes or not, I find them essential! I love the flavour that the onion adds to the rather bland potatoes, making them a more savoury side dish, which I think complements the sweet apple sauce topping wonderfully! I used to grate my onion in as well, but I found that they taste all the better when the onion is invisible. I mince mine up super fine so they blend right into the lacy potato shreds, adding their flavour without compromising on texture, or risking someone getting a big chunk of onion in their pancake. 

Squeeze Out The Liquid

This is likely THE most essential step in making the ultimate potato latkes. I mean it when I say DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! Don't even try to. There are no short cuts. As soon as my potatoes are grated and my minced onion in stirred in, I pour everything into a clean kitchen towel with a bowl resting underneath and squeeze the hell out of that stuff! Squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze until hardly anymore liquid comes out. Then carefully open up your towel, stir around the contents, and guess what?....You squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze again! I like to place a bowl underneath to catch all of the starchy potato liquid. After a few minutes the natural starch from the potato liquid will fall to the bottom of the bowl, allowing you to pour out the water and add the thick starch back into your potatoes. I like to do this to help my potato mixture hold together in the pan, as well as ensure my latkes are as crisp as possible. 

Season & Bind

Once your shredded potatoes are squeezed out as much as possible, it's time to season and bind everything together. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs (I do 2-3 for every five potatoes), some baking powder, and some breadcrumbs (I like to do half regular breadcrumbs, and half panko) and combine it into your potato and onion mixture. You want the mixture to be moist but not soupy at all. If it's not moistened enough from the egg, it won't hold together, and with too much egg, you've got yourself a weird omelette/latke hybrid. In terms of seasoning, I start with a couple of large pinches of salt and pepper, and then fry off a test latke to taste. If needed, I will season once again, and continue with the rest of the pancakes. 

Flavour Your Oil

This was one step that I was so excited to add to my latkes this year. Previously, I have only used vegetable oil for frying my latkes, but couldn't resist picking up a container of duck fat from St. Lawrence Market to aid in flavouring the plain vegetable oil. While schmaltz (chicken fat) is traditionally used, duck fat sounded oh-so-luxurious and was what I found first. The duck fat not only gave my latkes even more flavour, they also helped to crisp them up even more. 

Your Cast Iron Is Your Friend

While no, it's not absolutely essential to use a big, heavy cast iron pan to fry your potato latkes, I find that it makes a world of a difference! As soon as I started frying my latkes in a cast iron, my latkes when from "novice" to "expert." I will never go back to my regular All-Clad's or nonstick for frying latkes, ever! 

Keep 'em Warm

Because frying up batches of potato latkes is quite tedious and time consuming, I keep my oven preheated to 325ºF, with a baking sheet set inside, so I can place my fried and drained latkes to keep them warm and crisp. Before I place any latkes in the oven, I'm sure to take them straight from the cast iron to a prepared wire rack set over a paper-towel-lined baking sheet. This allows any excess oil to drain off. 

Serve Immediately!

I don't care what you say, latkes DO NOT taste the same the next day. Sure, they may still be incredibly tasty, but they sure ain't the brilliant and crispy pancakes that you made the day before. It's all about the texture. Latkes are meant to be served right away! So as soon as you're done frying up all of your shredded potatoes, get those babies on the table! After spending so much time on your feet in the kitchen, frying up batch upon batch of latkes, while your clothes and furniture soak up the smell, you owe it to yourself to serve them as they were intended to taste. I like to make extra so I can eat some immediately, and then have more for leftovers throughout the week. 

Have any other questions or concerns about making potato latkes? Leave me a comment here or tweet me: @thisgingerrose.

Listening To: 

Inconsiderate - Reo Cragun