Crispy Haddock Double Shelled Tacos, it's taco Tuesday and we just finished Cinco de Mayo with these lovely textural, plump, feast of flavor tacos.
Song of the day: "Smooth" by Carlos Santana and Ron Thomas.
Crispy Haddock double shelled tacos, two layers of shell, housing beautifully sauteed and seasoned purple cabbage and eggplant, along with a fresh chunky guacamole and crispy fried floured haddock, and you have the makings for a great supper on a Tuesday night.
Cinco de Mayo, a commemoration of Mexico's defeat of the French army back in 1862 at the battle of Puebla. This is why it is mostly a Mexican celebration and is celebrated immensely in the United States. What better way to feast, than with these super delicious tacos. So Cinco de Mayo is over and past, but Taco Tuesday has started its own revolution, here in Canada and the U.S. People go to their cupboards and gather up ingredients for a fun filled, taco assembling night.
We recently came back from a trip to the west coast, an island just off the shores of Victoria. Having had a lot of seafood had us still craving it and so, we decided to make fish tacos, more so a Crispy Haddock Double Shelled Taco. Some of you make ask what do we mean by a double shell, well I had this brain storm a while back and it came to me when we were having hard shell tacos. The shells crack, break apart and it is quite a messy affair leaving a lot of the filling on the plate, with shards of corn tortillas making it more like nachos. So I thought hey why not encase the hard taco in a soft tortilla hold them together with some delicious melted cheese, and there you have it another food aha moment. I know, you're saying, it has already been done, Mexican fast food places claiming it to be a gordita. Oh well these are going to be delicious anyway, there's crispy haddock.
Before going out and buying all the ingredients, we scan our pantry, fridge, and come up with some hard shells, purple cabbage, onions, sriracha, and some greek yogurt, and some beautiful grape tomatoes, and yellow peppers, we picked up at Planet Organic, another organic market we frequent here in Edmonton. We are going to need some other things and off to Loblaws, City market, to gather the rest of the ingredients. At first I had a halibut in mind, but they had none, and the man at the fish counter suggested the haddock, and so the main ingredient is settled, all I need now is an avocado, some soft tortilla rounds, a cheese, Gouda, which will be great to meld the two shells together. They have done a great job with this Loblaws. It's kind of ironic, but Loblaws was the very first place I began grocery shopping. It was in the late sixties and we lived in the Bonnie Doon area of Edmonton. I was quite young, but still remember the isles upon isles of food, especially the ones that contained my favorites, like viva puffs, I can go on about how I ate these chocolaty marshmallow puffy cookies, but that's another story. So we have our ingredients and now it's time to cook and get these tacos going.
Guacamole is something I just love, the richness of the avocado, that zing from the tomato, and red onion, yum. For these tacos, I wanted to keep it textural so I opted for a more chunky fresh guacamole.
The haddock I was torn in between grilling the fish or frying. Thinking about what I had envisioned I immediately thought crispy, and how was I going to achieve that besides cooking it in a saute pan with hot, hot oil? Well, I came back with flour, it is always a delicious way to get crispy fish, by coating it in flour. I stepped it up even more by seasoning the flour with some spices such as smoky paprika, onion powder, salt, pepper, and some chili powder for a little heat. In goes the pieces of haddock and well coated into the frying pan they go, and as you can see in the picture they turned out so beautiful, golden, crispy haddock, can't wait to taste these, ok I did taste a bit off the bottom of one, just a crispy edge, and oh my G., love it! It is going to be so good in the taco. Guacamole check, crispy haddock check. Nicoletta sauteed the purple cabbage, onions, and eggplant, a few spoonfuls in my mouth and I am salivating even more. The yellow peppers I also sauteed with some salt and pepper. Put a nice char on them to give this taco a bit more smokiness and sweetness, as you know when you cook the yellow peppers they get so sweet inside. I am so excited to put these babies together.
This is the game changer, the shells, that Gouda nice and shredded is going to hold that soft shell so nicely to the hard shell and imagine that melted cheese so tasty. Into an oven they go to melt that cheese a bit. What I found works best is to put them in the oven with the cheese on the soft tortilla, and have the hard shell on half the tortilla ready to be blanketed by the soft shell. When the cheese begins to melt, fold the soft tortilla. The nice thing is the tortilla is soft and warm and folds so easy and the cheese is just melted enough to be the glue holding it together, talk about passion, and there it is in all its glory.
Crispy Haddock Double Shelled Tacos, assembly time!
This is the fun part. First, grab one of those glorious taco shells. I sqeezed a nice line of sriracha sauce onto the bottom. Next some of those fresh salad greens that will be a nice bed for the crisp haddock to lay on. On each side of the fish a good handful of the cabbage mixture The next topper that chunky guacamole, and to finish some strands of charred yellow pepper and the crown, a dollop of greek yogurt. Doesn't that look so colorful and delicious. It reminds me of Mexico with all those colors and that spice that I know will tantalize my taste buds.
I gotta bite into these. Mmmmmmmmm that shell, first the softness and warmth of the soft tortilla wit its streamed corn flavor, then that cheese oozes into your mouth giving you that creamy, subtle but aged flavor of the gouda. Then that sound, CRUNCH! the hard shell breaks way opening the doors to sheer bliss as your mouth goes into a taste and texture frenzy. The fish, succulent, flaky, with its seasoned coating and that heat of the chili powder. The purple cabbage and onions so sweet with that plump eggplant leaving its luxuriousness on your tongue. The guacamole so fresh and creamy yet not so soft that it is pasty but just soft enough to compliment the experience of this taco. The greek yogurt is like music to my ears as it cools off the heat of the sriracha and marries well with the guac, cabbage, and fish. I love these and the shells holding everything in well. There are some morsels escaping but won't let those go to waste. That's what a fork is for. Hell, why not just use your fingers, after all this is hand food, lol. May need a few extra napkins!
So if it is Tuesday, or there is an excuse to make Mexican food, try these wonderfully colorful and tasty Crispy Haddock Double Shelled Tacos, the family will love them. Maybe someone doesn't like fish, then change it up and use, chicken or beef. You say vegetarian, then some nice grilled tofu. It's Taco Tuesday! Cha Cha Cha!
Song of the day: "Smooth" by Carlos Santana, and Rob Thomas.
PrintCrispy Haddock Double Shelled Tacos
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 6 tacos 1x
Ingredients
Fish:
- 650 g fresh haddock
- 130 g all purpose flour
- 1 tsp crushed sea salt
- 1 tsp crushed black pepper
- ½ tsp paprika
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp chilli powder
- 5 tbsp canola oil
- 1 tsp sesame oil
Taco filling (cabbage mixture)
- ¼ head of purple cabbage shredded
- ½ yellow onion chopped
- 3 garlic shoots chopped fine
- 1 eggplant peeled and slivered
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Pinch of Himalayan pink salt, pepper, marjoram
Taco filling: (peppers)
- 1 yellow pepper slivered
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt and peper to taste
Taco filling: (guacamole)
- 1 ripe avocado peeled pitted and diced
- 6 grape tomatoes quartered
- ¼ purple onion chopped fine
- 1 tsp mayo
- Salt and pepper to taste.
Taco filling: (salad greens)
- 140 g salad greens
Shells:
- 6 small soft tortilla rounds
- 6 hard taco shells
- 150 g shredded mild gouda cheese
Assembly:
- 4 tsp sriracha sauce
- 4 tsp organic greek yogurt
Instructions
Taco filling: (guacamole)
- In a bowl mix avocado, tomatoes, onion, mayo, salt and pepper. Set aside in refrigerator.
Taco filling: (Cabbage mixture)
- In a large sautee pan heat up olive oil.
- Place in onion, and garlic shoots in pan and sautee till soft, about 3 minutes.
- Add in purple cabbage and eggplant.
- Sautee till cabbage and eggplant are soft and succulent, about 15-20 minutes.
- Take off heat and set aside.
Taco filling: (yellow peppers)
- In a saute pan heat up oil, toss in yellow peppers.
- Sautee till peppers become a bit charred and soft on the inside, about 5 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Set aside.
Fish:
- Wash haddock fillets and dry with paper towel.
- Season each side with salt and pepper.
- In another shallow bowl add in flour, sea salt, black pepper, paprika, onion powder, chili powder, and blend well.
- Cut fillets into small pieces and place in four mixture coating well each side.
- Shake off excess flour and place on a dish.
- Repeat this process until all fish is floured.
- In a medium saute pan pour in canola and sesame oil.
- Heat to a medium to high heat.
- Place fish in pan and cook for about 4 minutes and coating becomes crisp and golden.
- Turn fish and cook another 4 minutes as done before.
- Take fish out of pan and place on a paper towel line plate.
Shells:
- Place soft tortillas on a large parchment lined baking sheet.
- Sprinkle with shredded Gouda
- Place hard taco shell on half of the soft tortilla opening facing outwards.
- Place in pre heated 350°F oven for about 2-3 minutes or until cheese begins to melt.
- Take out of oven and fold the soft tortilla to close in around hard taco, making
- Put back in oven and heat for an additional 2 minutes.
Assembly:
- While shells are in oven warm up peppers, cabbage, on stove top.
- Also place fish in oven with shells on a baking sheet.
- Take shells and fish out of oven.
- In the shell layer some sriracha
- Take some of the salad greens and line over top of sriracha.
- Break some fish and place on salad.
- On each side of the haddock layer in some of the cabbage mixture.
- On top of the fish goes some guacamole.
- Top with Greek yogurt.
- Ready to eat!
- Enjoy!
Notes
You can substitue beef, or chicken instead of the fish if it is not your thing, and if you want to make it vegetarian you can use tofu.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
Chicken Tacos, anyone?
KOREAN BBQ CHICKEN TACOS
Or Vegetarian tacos?
SEITAN AND RED CABBAGE TACOS WITH CORN AVOCADO GUACAMOLE
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When I am not cooking, I enjoy playing musical instruments, singing, writing. I have learned over the years to live in gratitude and enjoy the moment.
Dawn - Girl Heart Food says
I love any excuse to eat tacos, whether it's Taco Tuesday or some random day! Fish tacos are a favourite of mine cause they are so light and I really like to pack in the toppings. Love guac too (though once upon a time I didn't - shocker, right??). If I could only reach my hand through my screen and grab one or two of these.... 😉
Lol Dawn, I know when will they invent that transporter so we can actually send food around the world. Going to have to go down to my laboratory and work on the transporter. I am with you on the lightness of fish tacos and the amazing texture and flavor you can get. If we were closer Nicoletta and I could deliver. I would make a richshaw with our name on the side, imagine that I could eat even more than we make and burn it all off running the rickshaw. Wow lots to invent.
Have a great evening!
Loreto
Love In My Oven says
I just loved reading this blog post! From one Albertan to another(s) - it's tough sometimes when you're craving fresh seafood! We went out to Vancouver Island last year around this time and we just loved all the flora and fare. I hope you guys had a great time. I'm always looking for different ways to prepare fish tacos, as they're a favorite around here. This looks like a winner! Cheers guys!
Hi Katherine, thank you so much for the comment. I have been lucky to find a few fish mongers in the city here, and they let me know when they are getting fresh fis, clams or mussels. I still miss it straight from the source though, it just has that flavor intensity. The mediteranean fish and seafood is what we miss the most. There is nothing like the sea salt water and its jewels. I can't waite for you to try these tocos, they were so delicious, and the thing with fish is its is so easily digested
Have fun cooking!
Loreto.
bergetrk says
I love tacos any day of the week and I especially love the crunch of a taco shell. Fish tacos are such a great idea and these look scrumptious!
Thankyou Bergetrk, I hear you on the crunch of a taco. These are great because we have envelopted the crunchy hard taco in a soft taco with some chreese to hold it together. This doesnt take the crunch away, but it sure holds things together, especially that succulent and crispy haddock, that adds such awonderfully light and flavorful component to this taco.
Have a great weekend.
Cheers
Loret