The nice thing about cooking (as opposed to baking) is that it's not an exact science. Substitutions are allowed when cooking that help to customize recipes to your own liking. Such is the case with Bobby Flay's Fish Taco recipe presented in an episode of Throwdown. I have never had Fish Tacos before, but have seen them on numerous Food TV shows, so I was curious. When I checked Bobby Flay's recipe I was intimidated: tomatillo salsa from scratch, slaw with scratch dressing, guacamole--also from scratch, and mango relish--once more from scratch. Though delicious, I'm sure, it just wasn't practical for a tired mother of three at dinner time. I decided to go ahead with the recipe, but with substitutions to make it more manageable.
Bobby used snapper in his recipe. I was adamant to use snapper. The grocery store I frequent sold whole snapper and wouldn't filet it for me because there were too many bones. Luckily, they did have prepackaged snapper filets. We removed only a few bones prior to cooking and no one complained of bones while eating. We spiced the snapper with whatever was handy in the kitchen pantry (i.e., garlic powder, onion, powder, seasoned salt, paprika, cayenne, etc.) and grilled the fish.
I purchased one bag of pre-shredded green cabbage and one bag of pre-shredded red cabbage and mixed half and half in a bowl. I used Kraft coleslaw dressing until the cabbage was coated. This added a wonderfully creamy aspect to the tacos, as well as a crunch. I don't think the recipe suffered at all with this substitution.
I used a container of fresh salsa, the kind you purchase in a plastic tub in the deli section. I find it has a fresher, homemade flavour, while the bottled stuff tastes like chunky ketchup. I chose mild, because I find the medium too spicy.
I didn't substitute for the guacamole. My recipe is simple: a whole avacado, mashed; half a medium red onion, diced, the juice of a lime, kosher salt and pepper to taste. The result is so creamy and just a little spicy (because of the onions). We like to eat the guacamole plain on corn chips at my house, its so popular.
Bobby used soft taco shells. His opponent used fried taco shells (hard). I bought flour tortillas for the soft and a package of Taco Bell hard shells (for the kids because they like the crunch). To assemble, I put the fish in first, then the slaw, then the salsa then guacamole. The result was interesting. Usually, taco night winds up tasting like sloppy joes in taco shells. This was a nice change. The snapper was flavourful, the slaw creamy, the salsa tangy and the guacamole spicy, slightly sour (from the lime) and with another dimension of creaminess. Overall, this is a great recipe. If you decide to go whole hog and try Bobby's recipe, or my shortened version, let me know.
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