Beer Battered Fish Tacos with Peach Salsa

Fish tacos hold a special place in my heart. Even though really the first time I ever had them was a few years ago, I feel like I’ve eaten enough in the past few years to make up for an entire lifetime! There are so many different variations, and I have a place about 5 minutes away that serve my favorite version (so far). Cactus Flower in Gulf Shores serves mahi tacos, and I like to get them flash fried with a soft flour tortilla. They serve their tacos with shredded cabbage, pico de gallo, a creamy lime sauce, and their California lime dressing (my fav).

Here, I’ve used some fresh mahi mahi, cabbage, and jalapenos from our local Farmer’s Market. The peach salsa was an on-a-whim kinda thing, because my original idea – a mango salsa – was changed because of a forgotten item at the grocery store (the freakin’ mango — duh!) The peach salsa turned out super-tasty though, and was a great complement to the fried fish. I’ve made four components for the tacos: the beer battered fried fish, a lime-cabbage slaw, a peach salsa, and a lime crema. I love the combination of the tangy sour lime in the crema to lighten the flavors a bit from the hot salsa.

For the final component, the tortillas, I heated my grill pan (from my KitchenAid winnings) oven medium-high heat, and pressed the tortilla between the lid and the pan, to heat up the tortilla and give some cool ‘grill’ marks on the outside of the tacos. I love this pan!

Fresh mahi cut into 1-inch strips, I suggest cutting them a little bit thinner, about 1/2 – 3/4 inch thick strips to fit in the tacos, and stretch the amount!

I laid down paper towels and topped with a cooling rack. After dipping the fish in the batter, I let them sit on the rack, and then after removing from the fryer, lay them out on the rack to let any excess oil fall out.