Untraditional Fish Tacos and Skillet Corn Bread

It wasn't that long ago that I was standing on the Santa Monica Pier with 3 of my favorite people (Mike + the Valls) gnawing on amazing fish tacos. Fast forward a few thousand miles, a new baby, a year or so, and the meal is nearly the same. Well sorta. Here is my version (I think it is better than the California version because it doesn't have cabbage--yucko) served with hot skillet corn bread. I love this dinner because it really is delish and I can pull it together in about 35 minutes and the clean up is a snap, I will cheer for that.

Clarke-Style Fish Tacos
For the fish.
3-4 medium fillets of white fish, I used tilapia
3/4C white flour
3/4C yellow corn meal
1t cayenne pepper
1t sea salt
2 eggs beaten in a shallow dish

Combine all of dry ingredients into a ziplock bag.
Add one fish filet at a time into the bag and cover with the mixture, next slop the fish into the beaten egg, then add it back into the dry ingredients--this double dipping technique makes for a very crispy battered fish.

In a hot saute pan, heat a bit of oil and butter gently fry the fish until crispy about 4 minutes per side.





For the taco toppings.
Tortillas
Iceburg Lettuce (I know all of you traditionalists out there will shutter at this thought, but I don't like cabbage unless it is swimming in mayo)
Avocados
Cilantro
Fresh Garden Tomatoes
Red Onion
Remoulade, house made or from the greatest food store on the planet, Wegmans



The best accompaniment that I can come up with for the fish tacos is skillet corn bread. I say this for many reasons...one you don't need a big side dish because the tacos are so good you will literally stuff yourself with one too many of them. And reason number two, many ingredients that are needed for the corn bread are used for the tacos ...so they are already out, it just makes life easier.

Skillet Corn Bread
3/4 C all purpose flour
3/4C yellow corn meal
3T sugar
1 scallion thinnly sliced (white and green parts)
1/2 C corn (fresh or frozen)
3/4 C shredded cheddar cheese
1t cayenne pepper
1 3/4C well shaken buttermilk
2 eggs
3/4t baking soda

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Preheat oven to 425, place your cast iron skillet in the oven while it is heating---very important!

Once the oven is hot, remove the pan and swirl around about 3T of butter (it doesn't matter if it gets a little brown)

Pour in the batter and let bake for about 18-22 minutes.