Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa - A Taste of Summer

As I sit here and write this, it is -10°c outside. This hasn't been the worst winter I've ever seen, but when compounded with everything else, it seems never-ending. Like a lot of other people, I am craving warmer days and sunshine. Unfortunately, I can't change the weather, but I can make summer food to cure those winter blues. These Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa are that cure. Every bite is like a little taste of your own personal summer.

Jump to:

• Mango Salsa
• Recipe
• Chipotle Lime Mayo
• Recipe
• The Fish
• Making the Fish Tacos
• Pickled Red Onion
• Recipe
• Final Thoughts

If you're looking for more seafood ideas, take a look at everything I know about cooking fish -- it covers the fundamentals of selecting and preparing fish that apply directly to these tacos. And if you enjoy fresh, bright bowls like this, my Smoked Mackerel Sushi Bowl hits a lot of the same notes.

Mango Salsa

The first step in making these fish tacos is to make the mango salsa. You can use store-bought salsa if you want, but you won't get that same fresh summery flavour. If you have the time, make the salsa. It's worth the effort. If you don't like or can't find mango, it can be substituted with pineapple, peaches, or oranges.

Ingredients

The salsa ingredients are mango, red onion, lime juice and zest, cilantro, cumin, garlic, grape tomato, kosher salt, and pepper. I didn't add anything spicy to the salsa because the tacos have chipotle lime mayo on them and fresh jalapeno. Of course, if you want to slice up a jalapeno or habanero and add it to the salsa, go for it.

Cutting the Mango

Cutting the mango is the trickiest part of making this salsa. You can peel the mango, cut it into thin slices, cut those slices into sticks, then cut those sticks into small cubes, but doing that will take a lot more time than the technique I'm about to describe.

Stand the mango up on your cutting board and cut the two sides off. There will be about a half-inch pit in the middle that you can't cut through. Take those sides and make small even slices in the flesh but not through the peel. Rotate the mango by 90 degrees and make more slices the same width apart. Push up on the mango's bottom to make it look like a porcupine and cut the little squares away from the skin.

The only thing to keep in mind when doing this is that you do not want to cut through the skin. The mango won't pop up properly if you do. Once you get the sides of the mango diced, go back to the pit and cut off any excess fruit and dice it.

Finishing the Salsa

Put the diced mango in a mixing bowl, mince some onion, dice the tomatoes, chop the cilantro, and mince the garlic. Put all the ingredients in the mixing bowl, including the cumin, olive oil, salt, pepper, lime zest and juice. Stir. Cover the salsa with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for an hour before serving.

Recipe

Chipotle Lime Mayo

What is Chipotle?

Chipotle peppers are smoked and dried jalapenos. You can buy them in three ways: as the whole dried pepper, dried and ground, or canned and packed in adobo. Adobo is like a Spanish pickling liquid. For this recipe, use the canned ones. I find they have more flavour and are easier to use than the dried ones because you don't have to rehydrate them. You can buy canned chipotles in most grocery stores by the taco kits. You won't use the whole can for this recipe, but any leftovers can be frozen and used later.

Making the Chipotle Lime Mayo

To make the chipotle lime mayo, cut two chipotles as small as you can and combine them with mayonnaise, lime juice and a bit of salt. Put the chipotle lime mayo in a small dish or squeeze bottle and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes before serving. If you'd like, you can use sour cream instead of mayonnaise.

Recipe

The Fish

For my fish tacos, I used halibut, but you can use literally any fish you'd like. You may need to change how you cook the fish and cooking times depending on the fish you use, but other than that, everything can stay the same. If you'd like to, you could also use shrimp or scallops in place of the fish. For tips on choosing and handling different types of fish, have a look at my homemade condiments page for sauces that pair well with seafood.

Preparing the Fish

To prepare the fish -- again, in my case, it is halibut -- cut it into thin strips and season it with salt and pepper. Make sure to let your pan heat fully before adding the fish; otherwise, your fish may boil in its own juices. You want to hear a good sizzle the moment the fish hits the pan.

Heat a medium non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Add a bit of oil to the pan, then the fish. Cook the fish until it is very light brown, then flip it and brown it on the other side. It should take two to three minutes per side. Finish the fish by squeezing the juice from half a lime over it.

Making the Fish Tacos

To assemble the fish tacos, warm six corn tortillas and spread some sliced avocado out onto them. Put the fish on the avocado, then the mango salsa on the fish. Top the fish with thinly sliced jalapeno and chipotle mayo. Finish the tacos with pickled red onion and a few leaves of fresh cilantro. Serve the tacos with lime wedges on the side.

Pickled Red Onion

I had a jar of pickled red onions in my fridge that I made a few weeks ago, so I don't have a recipe to share. The pickled onions do add a lot to the tacos, so I suggest making some. At a glance, this recipe seems good, but I haven't made it myself.

I usually eyeball my ingredients when pickling onions. Still, if I had to guess, I would say I usually use:

• ¼ cup of red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons of water
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of kosher salt
• ½ cup of thinly sliced red onion

Put all the ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, then turn off and cool. Store the pickled onions in the fridge for up to a month. Again, this is not a tried and true recipe, just an estimation of what I usually do.

Recipe

Final Thoughts

These fish tacos have become one of my go-to meals whenever I need a reminder that summer exists. The salsa and chipotle mayo can both be made a day ahead, which means the actual cooking is just a few minutes of searing fish. I hope they bring a little warmth to your kitchen, too.