I have two great memories involving blackened fish (I know, it’s weird, but what can I say, I love food). The first is from when I lived in New Orleans, and at every single festival or farmer’s market, there was a vendor selling AH-MAZING blackened fish tacos with crunchy red cabbage and a cool creamy dill sauce. I could not leave without eating at least one of them! The second is from my first visit with Zach to see his homeland, when we went down to South Padre Island from Austin to see the Rio Grande Valley, where he began his teaching career. We had a blackened fish po’ boy from Dirty Al’s restaurant with some kind of secret amazing hot sauce that blew my mind. Good Lord, it was delicious.
Blackening fish is easy to do- just mix a bunch of spices you likely already have together, and after adding a coat of olive oil on the fish, press the seasoning in a thick layer onto the fish. I used what I had in my pantry (see below) but I have seen other recipes that add brown sugar, onion powder, cumin, and other seasonings into the mix! You really can’t go wrong here. After seasoning the fish, I let it sit for a while to come to room temperature while I prepared the rest of the ingredients for the tacos. I had already made mango salsa a few days ago, and in my humble opinion you cannot have tacos without avocados, so I mashed some with some lime juice and salt to make a quick guacamole. The one thing I didn’t have was cabbage for something crunchy, so I sliced some carrots very thin to add some crunch (this was good in a pinch, but next time I will definitely make sure to buy some red cabbage for this). Finally, I toasted the corn tortillas right on top of the gas burner of my stove. Just be careful if you do this- I may or may not have caught one on fire by accident. Oops.
The fish will cook up in less than 5 minutes, and you are done! I HIGHLY recommend using a well-seasoned cast iron skillet for this. It’s my most used kitchen tool- it cooks everything so evenly because the heat gets distributed very well due to its weight, and over time it’s developed the most awesome non-stick surface. Love it. Hope you enjoy!
