Fish Tacos

So, about a month ago me and my friend Will got the urge to BBQ a whole fish and make fish tacos with fresh corn tortillas from one of our under spots Pepe’s Hacienda. They make them in their own bakery every Saturday and come out warm and delicious. Fresh vegetables for toppings; cabbage, tomatoes, onions and cilantro. And to top it all off a homemade roumelade made from sour cream, chipotle, cilantro and lime.

So we strike out early and go to the fish market out in mayport, SafeHarbor (address and google link). Besides some of the freshest fish for cheap, they also have a small kitchen where they will fry whatever you want. Awesome place, a must go just for the food but also an excellent selection of local and foreign fish.  We end up spending like 50-70$ on a whole b-line snapper (price per Lb), a grouper filet (price), some milk fish and shrimp. We always do this. Go in for one thing and end up getting 4 or 5 different things. Like little kids in a candy store. Don’t even ask what happened to us when we went to restaurant depot. We went in just to look and ended up spending like 400$. Horrible… anyways.. The selection was awesome and the service is excellent. They will gut and clean your fish johnny on the spot.

I would recommend that you bring a small cooler to hold your fish and keep cold if you got a long drive back. They do double bag and provide you with ice, the cooler will also prevent spillage.

So we get back to the house and stuff the fish with lime slices, onion slices and cilantro. Coat it with olive oil. I could have cut some slits from back to belly on its side and seasoned it but did not as this was the first time and wanted to get the basic taste.  We cut the garnishes and make the roumelade.  Recipe.

We light the coals, dump them and start to bbq the fish on indirect heat. We cook the fish on indirect heat for 30 – 45 minutes with some cherrywood chips for smoke. Flipping every 10-15 minutes.

We pull it off the grill and place on a cookie sheet to cool off. We peeled the skin back and commenced to tearing the meat off and Placing in tacos.                             

 

So, I’m not one to brag but they came out phenomenal. We also bbq the grouper which was the best by itself and some shrimp which also came out delicious with the smoke. The milkfish was a real disappointment but it was too fishy to meld or compliment the smoke. Wrong place, wrong time. Probably more of a fry fish or stew fish but I don’t think it would hold up to a stew like a basa would.

Our other friend B-Lakes came through and thoroughly enjoyed the tacos as well. We were pairing the tacos with Widmer Drifter, and miller lite (our staple) both were good with this meal as they are both fairly light. The widmer has a strong citrus after taste and is more aggressive than miller lite but excellent for lighter fare foods as it will not overtake or outshine the food.

Best part of the fish was the cheek meat, just behind and underneath the eyes. Nice a flavorful, more fat than the body. Overall this was a great meal and would be excellent for a group of 3-4 depending on appetite and sides. 3 of us almost killed one whole fish with no sides. The convo alone as people looked at a whole fish, probably for the first time for some, was worth it alone.

This may seem like a daunting adventure but it wasn’t. If you have confidence in your grill and bbq skills this is well worth the risk. On a scale of 1-10 for difficulty. 6.5.