If you’re having a few friends over for a late summer lunch or dinner, why not have some tasty fun and serve what I call, not a Tex-Mex, but a West-Mex meal?
In this fusion of Mexican and West Coast flavours, tacos are made with Mexican-style soft, warmed and rollable fresh corn tortillas filled with bits of B.C. salmon, crisp cabbage, cilantro and three fresh and zesty sauces that can also contain local ingredients.
The salmon for the tacos is easy to make once you get your boneless fillets cut into bite-size pieces and flavoured with lime juice, brown sugar and spices. Once that’s done, you simply set the salmon in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake until cooked through, which will take about eight minutes. While the fish cooks, you also wrap and warm up the tortillas in the oven.
Because the fish cooks so fast, you’ll first want to prepare the cabbage and cilantro for the tacos and have them at the ready, and also whip up the three sauces you’ll spread and spoon onto your tacos. All of the sauces can be made an hour or more before needed (see recipe for details.)
The first sauce is avocado cream, a smooth mixture made by blending ripe avocado with sour cream and flavourings. The avocado cream is spreadable and great to smear on your tortilla before setting on the salmon and other fillings.
My second sauce is a classic Mexican one called pico de gallo. It is also called salsa fresca, and that makes sense because fresca means “fresh” and ingredients in this salsa, such as tomato, onion, lime and spicy peppers, are just that.
The pico de gallo pairs well with the salmon, not to mention the avocado cream.
My last topping for the tacos is a peach hot sauce that I was inspired to make by my son, Tyler, a great cook in his own right who recently cooked up this style of sauce for a party he went to.
My version is close to his, but his sauce used ultra-hot fresh habañero peppers to spice it up, while mine uses sriracha, a chili sauce sold at most supermarkets that pairs well with sweet-tasting peaches and the tequila and citrus juice also found in the sauce.
My salmon taco recipe yields four to six servings, each serving comprising two to three tacos. Whether you serve two or three tacos per person will depend on your guests’ appetite and/or if you decide to serve a snack before the tacos, or side dishes with them.
Side dishes could be Spanish-style rice, warm refried beans or crispy tortillas chips to scoop up any taco fillings that fall on your plate while eating.
Icy margaritas, of course, would also go great with salmon tacos.
Wild Salmon Tacos
The soft and rollable corn tortillas used in this recipe are available at most supermarkets, either in the bread or deli section or the cold case, often beside items such as bags of grated cheese.
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time:About eight minutes
Makes: Four to six (two to three tacos each) servings
3 Tbsp lime juice
3 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
750 grams boneless, wild salmon fillets, • salt to taste
12 (six-inch round) soft corn flour tortillas
1 cup thinly sliced red cabbage
24 to 36 small, fresh cilantro sprigs, or to taste
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the first six ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut the salmon into one-and-a-half-inch-long, half-inch-thick strips. Place the salmon in the bowl and toss to coat. Arrange the salmon in a single layer on the baking sheet; season with salt.
Preheat the oven to 375 F. Cut two, 12-inch long pieces of aluminum foil. Stack six tortillas in the centre of each piece of foil and wrap them up.
Place the salmon and the tortillas in the oven and cook eight minutes, or until the fish is cooked through and the tortillas are warm.
Let diners top their own tortillas with salmon, cabbage, cilantro and the sauces below.
Note: Salmon fillets are sold skin on and that skin should be removed for this recipe. If you're not sure how to remove it, a server at the supermarket seafood counter or specialty seafood store will do that for you, if you ask.
Avocado Cream
This smooth avocado mixture is great for spooning and spreading on tacos before filling them with the salmon and other toppings.
Preparation time: Five minutes
Cooking time: None
Makes: About one and quarter cup
1 ripe, large avocado
1/3 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 tsp honey, or taste
• hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco, to taste
Quarter the avocado lengthwise, pull it apart and discard the pit. Cut the avocado into cubes and place them and the remaining ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. (You could also blend the ingredients in the cup that came with your immersion blender.) Transfer to a small bowl, cover and refrigerate until needed. The avocado cream can be made one to two hours before serving.
Pico de Gallo
This fresh tomato-based salsa recipe yields about two cups. After spooning some on your salmon tacos, serve the rest with crispy tortilla chips for dunking and scooping it up.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: None
Makes: About two cups
2 medium ripe, red on-the-vine tomatoes, cut into small cubes
1/3 cup finely diced white onion
1/3 to 1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves, chopped
1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 Tbsp lime juice
1/4 tsp ground cumin
• salt to taste
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Pico de gallo can be made a few hours before needed.
Peach Hot Sauce with Sriracha, Citrus and Tequila
This fruity, spicy sauce recipe yields about two cups, much more than you’ll need to drizzle on the salmon tacos. That’s a good thing because in the coming days the rest can be served as a sauce you drizzle on a grilled or barbecued food once cooked and plated, or brush on near the end of cooking. The grilled or barbecued foods that would taste great with the peach hot sauce include salmon or halibut fillets, prawns, chicken breast, legs or thighs and pork ribs, chops or tenderloin.
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: About 20 minutes
Makes: About 2 cups
1 1/2 lb. fresh peaches (about 3 to 4 depending on size)
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped
3 Tbsp Sriracha, or taste
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp finely grated lime zest
2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup tequila
• salt to taste
Bring a pot of water, large enough to completely submerge the peaches, to a boil. Mark a shallow X into the blossomed end of each peach. Plunge the peaches in the boiling water for about 90 seconds, or just until the skins start to loosen. Lift the peaches out of the water with a slotted spoon and set and cool on a plate a few minutes.
Pull the skin off each peach and discard it. Cut each peach in half and remove the pits. Coarsely chop peaches and place them and any juices on your board into a bowl.
Place the oil in a medium pot set over medium heat. Add the onions and cook and stir until tender, about five to seven minutes. Add the chopped peaches and remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down until the sauce simmers gently and cook for 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and purée the peach mixture in the pot with an immersion blender, or transfer to a blender or food processor and purée there.
Set a fine sieve over a bowl and pour in some of the puréed peach mixture. Use a whisk to vigorously stir and push out as much liquid as you can from the peach mixture into the bowl. Keep on with this process until the puréed peach mixture has all been strained into a smooth peach hot sauce. Discard the pulp left in the sieve.
Cool the peach hot sauce to room temperature, and then transfer to a tight-sealing container and refrigerate until needed. The sauce will keep about a week in the refrigerator.
Any sauce you don’t use within a week could be frozen in small tubs, at the ready to thaw and use when needed.
Eric Akis is the author of The Great Rotisserie Chicken Cookbook (Appetite by Random House). His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
