I totally blame this post on two fabulous friends who are big into their craft beers: the ingenious Kate Packwood, from The Wild Flour Bakery, and the super mad Steve Mooney (AKA @pasty_face), who is well known on twitter as the outrageously funny guy behind the entrepreneurial Anto (his alter ego). A while ago, Kate, Steve and their respective other-halves went out for a few drinks; a bit into the night, I received a very funny text from Ms. Packwood along the lines of 'You gotta taste this beer, it's f***ing sensational'. She was referring to a concept beer by BrewDog made with ginger, black raspberries and chipotle peppers (check it out here). I trust Kate's taste completely. She's after all, one of the most inventive and talented young bakers in Ireland. Despite the hefty beer price, 19.99 euro for a bottle, I asked her to get me a bottle as I love cooking with beer. As it turned out, the beer was gorgeous, but way too stout-y for what I wanted it, so ended up drinking some and using the rest in a steak and 'chipotle beer' pie. However, the flavour of the beer was the inspiration for this fish tacos recipe. I truly hope you enjoy them as much as we did.
Note: for the chipotle chile powder I used the Cool Chile Company one, but you can also pass a dry chipotle pepper through a spice grinder and make your own; this is much cheaper but a little more labour intense. You will also need a generous quantity of chipotle mayonnaise, I make a home made version, but if you want the cheat version, you can mix 1 cup of shop bought mayonnaise (full-fat is best) and crush 1 or 2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce into them. Chipotle chiles in adobo are smoky and delicious. You can buy them in Ireland in our shop. Since you're only using 1 or 2, put the rest of the tin contents in a glass jar or a plastic container with a lid and keep them refrigerated. They last forever that way!
Put all the batter ingredients in a good size bowl and whisk them until it's all incorporated and you have a boozy chipotle batter.
Dry the fish well with a kitchen paper towel and slice it into finger-size bites a bit like fish fingers. In another plate, mix flour, salt and pepper and leave it to a side.
Heat the sunflower oil in a deep non-stick pan. The oil must be very hot in order to fry the fish for only a few minutes and obtain a crispy goujon. While the oil heats, get on with making the goujons
Roll the slices of well dried fish in the plate with the flour mix making sure to coat the fish well with the peppery flour.
Dip the floured fish piece in the boozy chipotle batter and drop it gently in the hot oil to fry.
Fry the fish for a few minutes on both sides and take it out once the batter is fully cooked, golden and crispy. Place the fish goujons on a plate lined with kitchen paper and repeat the step until all your fish pieces are done.
Cover the fish goujons with tin foiled while you heat the tortillas to keep them warm. Heat your corn tortillas on a dry non stick pan for about 30 seconds on both sides, use a tortilla warmer, or a tortilla oven to keep them warm. When serving tacos, I always suggest to do it the Mexican Family way: put all the components of the tacos in the middle of the table and get each person to assemble their own tacos. It's fun and saves a lot of work.
Assembling your Boozy Chipotle Fish Tacos:
Take a warm corn tortilla, spoon a generous amount of home made chipotle mayonnaise, place a leave of gem lettuce on top and crown it with a fish goujon; fold it and eat it.
