Yanqui Mike´s Fish Tacos

Before all the great veggies are gone from the market ...lemme weigh-in with the recipe that wows my Argentine missus ...who is a relative stranger to fish, corn tortillas, and marvelous salsa picante.

Ingredements:
1. a slew of Las Tortillas de Pancho Villa
--I like the yellow corn ones with salt!
2. a goodly supply of Salsa El Tejano
--there´s 4 levels of hotness ...you know your favorite.
3. Fish
--locally, I think fat fillets of Merluza can´t be beat.
4. Raw Onion
--peel 'em deep for only the tenderest layers.
5. Avocado/Aguacate (Palta, locally)
--this is the end of the season for the best ones.
6. Tender leafy greens
--pick your favorite, be adventurous!
7. Fresh tomato
--know anybody with a garden?!?
9. Fresh limes
--available almost year 'round but quite expensive part of the year.
10. Salt
--I like the medium-coarse salt "para la parilla."
11. Cumin/Comino
--sometimes it´s good, sometimes it´s meh ...doesn´t seem to matter the brand or the price.
12. Cilantro
--fresh is best, of course, but dried or frozen will stand-in for this pinch of the essential.
13. Oregano
--Mexican Oregano is the best ...but a pinch of the supermarket brand will do.
14. Flour for dredging the fish fillets
--keep it simple.
15. Oil for frying the fish
--Any light and lightly flavored oil will do.  Olive oil is great, of course ...but just about anything other than soybean oil will probably serve you well.

Assemblage (in no particular order):

Sharpen your knife, guard your fingers, and slice the onions as paper thin as you can.  Depending on how sweet or strong they are, adjust the amount for each for each taco to taste.

Slice your avocados thin enough to be a flexible component of a taco ...but chunky enough to let you know that was an avocado you just bit into.

Toss the onion and avocado into a small bowl, sprinkle with salt, a pinch of cilantro, a pinch of oregano, and a pinch of comino (all to taste) then squeeze fresh lime juice over everything and let it sit while you prepare the rest.

Moisten the fillets of Merluza in nothing more than water, drag them through some flour, sprinkle with salt and lay them in a medium-hot skillet holding about a ¼ inch of oil.  Cook them only until light to medium brown.

*(don´t buy fish on Mondays or on a Tuesday after a holiday!  In Buenos Aires, Wednesday should become your fish day!)

Warm your corn tortillas on a hot metal surface.  You can slightly toast them, if you like, but not so much that they become hard to bite through or become hard to bend.

Halve and slice your tomatoes very thin, if they are nasty supermarket types ...a little thicker if they are delicious home-grown ones.

Tear or slice your leafy greens into strips that your taco can accomodate.  Don´t be afraid to experiment with greens other than lettuce!  Strong flavored leafies stand up against the other flavors but don´t overpower them.  Right now, I have Acelga (!) that is so fresh and tender from the garden that it´s perfect.

Either place all the ingredients seperately on a platter and let everyone assemble them themselves ...or place onion, tomato, avocado, and greens on one-half of an open Tortilla de Pancho Villa ...then mangle part of a fish fillet on top of all that and fold.

Either add Salsa El Tejano during assembly or bring a dish for double-dipping to the table ...or both!

Proportions/Ratio:

The fish is, obviously, the star of this dish ...but the corn tortilla runs second ...and the salsa should run ALL OVER it!  Everything else is playing a supporting role of texture, vegetable flavors, citrus, and salt.

Am I missing GARLIC?  You tell me!  Garlic can really make your fish tacos sing!  I always use it ...but some folks complain (you know how they are.)  Feel free to fit it in anywhere in the process ...but if you put it in the skillet, do NOT brown it.

DON'T OVERLOAD your tacos.  Keep the fillings reasonably portioned and keep lots of tortillas and salsa for your guests to come back for more!

Fish tacos are not exactly common.  They seem to have come out of Baja California then spread to US California then to Colorado!  If you don´t know them, slap some together!  You won´t regret it.