Fresh and Fishy
There are lots of ways to eat lots of fish, but one of our favourite combos is Mahi Mahi in fish tacos! It’s a firm fish with a distinct flavour that gives you a satisfying bite.
Wrapped up in warm tortillas with sour cream, sriracha, salsa, and the crunch of coleslaw, they’re a tasty bite that’s pretty good for you too!
Fresh – and fishy!
I start out by preparing the fish sous vide, which prevents overcooking and ensures a great texture in your taco, and finish it in a frying pan to give it some colour.
For me, a fish taco isn’t complete without a handful of coleslaw on top. Dressed with a simple creamy dressing, it adds great texture AND a tangy zip of flavour in every bite.
The recipes for both the Mahi Mahi and the dressing are below. I started out cooking the fish right from frozen. If you don’t have a sous vide stick, it’s no big deal. Just thaw your fillets first and pan fry them a few minutes per side – until the fish just starts to get flaky. A little marinade in oil and lemon juice with some salt, pepper, and garlic doesn’t hurt either!
Sous vide mahi mahi
A key component to my family's favourite fish tacos. Getting them vacuum-sealed can be frustrating though!
Equipment
- FoodSaver vacuum sealer
- Sous Vide stick (IE: Anova Nano)
- large pot/SV container
- paper towel
- vacuum bags
Ingredients
- 2 fillets Mahi Mahi frozen
- 1 drizzle avocado oil or other oil of your choice
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp seasoned salt (Hy's, Lowry's, etc)
- ½ tsp ground black pepper
- ⅓ tsp granulated garlic
Instructions
Prep your sous vide bath
- Fill with hot water to above the min line on your sous vide stick.
- Set sous vide stick to 130° for 50 minutes.
Prep your fish
- If using vacuum sealed frozen fillets like I was, remove them from their bags.
- Prepare a vacuum bag large enough for your fillets. I went with two per bag. It may be a good idea to make the bag a little extra long, in case you need to try re-sealing more than once. (See notes.)
- Add your fillets to the bag.
- Being careful not to get anything on the upper 1-1½" of the bag, add a drizzle of oil, the lemon juice, salt, pepper, and garlic.
- Using the moist, gentle cycle, vacuum seal the bags. Stop the vacuum early if/when you see the liquids heading to the top of the bag. They can mess up the seal.
- Double check the seal!! If it looks good, it isn't a bad idea to set your FoodSaver to seal again and give it a second sealing. You could even leave it on vacuum and verify your first seal that way.
Cook the fish
- Place the sealed fillets in the water, ensuring they do not float, and that the bag doesn't start filling with water – a sign of a bad seal on the bag.
- Let them go until the timer sounds. (50 minutes)
- Drain the liquids from the bag.
- Cut the bag open and do your best to pat the fillets dry. They are very tender and flaky, so this is quite tricky without breaking them apart.
- Heat up a non-stick pan with a drizzle of oil (avocado/vegetable) over medium-high heat.
- Add the fillets to the pan for 1-2 minutes per side, just to give them some colour.
- Remove to plate and enjoy. Makes an amazing fish taco!
Notes
I was caught off-guard by how much trouble sealing these fish would be with the liquid in the bag. I knew it would be a bit tricky, but didn’t expect as many attempts as it took!
One trick I’d read about involved taking a piece of paper towel and folding it into about a one inch wide strip, putting that across the width of the bag, and then sealing. It holds the moisture back, but still allows the air to come out. This worked for me on the second bag that fought me every step of the way otherwise. I got lucky on the first one I did. I still added a second seal on the bag to be safe.
It’s a little tricky to get the paper towel to sit right where you need it, but it DID work.
Here’s the recipe for the coleslaw dressing. I mixed up a bowl for my fish tacos – and then ate what was left as a side dish. The vinegar and lemon juice give it a bright, lively flavour.
Creamy Coleslaw Dressing
Odds are, you already have everything you need to make this – and it's better than the stuff you get in the store!!
Equipment
- 1 cup plastic container with lid
- Spoon
Ingredients
- ½ cup Miracle Whip or mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp white sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice fresh squeezed or from a bottle, really doesn't matter
- 1½ tbsp raw apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp ground black pepper I like coarse ground here
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Add Miracle Whip/mayo to your container.
- Add sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
- Stir it all together.
- If you want it thinner, add more lemon juice and/or vinegar. Taste it to figure out which to use. If you taste more vinegar than lemon, add a little lemon juice. If it's more lemony, add some vinegar. Just very small amounts until it's the consistency and balance you want.
- Add to your coleslaw mix, toss, and serve!
Notes
The little 284mL screw-top Rubbermade Take-Aways plastic containers are the perfect size for a batch of these. But any container with a lid will be just fine.
We used to get a locally-made dressing that we used for coleslaw all the time. It was great, but after decades, the business closed, and it went away. Going back to the store-bought dressing was kind of sad for us. But this quick and easy dressing? It’s fantastic!!
I use raw apple cider vinegar, because it’s a vinegar I enjoy (I can drink the stuff straight from the bottle), but regular white vinegar would be fine here. Malt vinegar would work – although it will turn the dressing a potentially off-brownish shade that you may not like the look of. Heck, balsamic may be good in this too, only with even more of a weird colour than malt vinegar would give. I always used to give the store-brand dressings a little shot of balsamic on coleslaw though, so that may be someone I’ll try one day. Or not – since I love this version so much!