Last weekend I wanted to cook some good food. It being a Saturday evening and all I wanted to make something more than my regular 5-min dishes, and eventually I recalled a very fond food memory of mine. I knew then what to cook.

It was back in 2017 when I was doing my exchange semester in Canada, that I found a restaurant in Toronto called El Catrin Destilería, located right in the middle of the distillery district. Asking the waitress for a recommendation, she said that if there was anything that needed trying, it was their signature dish, the Baja fish taco. And boy, did I like the Baja! Actually, I liked the restaurant so much that I tried it three times in less than two weeks, always coming back for the Baja. Even though fish tacos are a very basic dish, the preparation and accoutrements took this simple street food to a whole other level. Below is their recipe.

The Baja Fish Taco (1 Portion)

• 125 gr skinless haddock cut into 3 long strips
• 2 tbsp chipotle aioli
• 1¼ dl coleslaw (See recipe below)
• 3 small flour tortillas
• 1 tbsp cilantro
• 1 batch Stella Artois batter (See recipe below)
• 2,5 dl flour
• 5 dl canola oil
• 2 lime wedges (about ¼ of a lime)

The Chipotle Aioli

• 1 dl mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp canned chipotle in adobe
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp lime juice (about ½ a lime)

The Coleslaw

• 1¼ dl green cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp chipotle aioli
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp lime juice (about 1 lime)

Batter on STELLA ARTOIS

• 3,5 dl flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tall can (500 ml) of Stella Artois

Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients. Combine wet into dry and stir until smooth.

How To Do It

• Add flour to a shallow bowl.
• Add oil to a medium saucepan (pot).
• Heat on medium-high until hot. The easiest and safest method to test if your oil is hot is to stick the end of a wooden spoon into the oil. If you see many bubbles form around the wood and they start to float up, your oil is ready for frying. If it is bubbling hard, the oil is too hot; let it cool a bit and check the temperature again.
• Once hot, lower the heat to medium to hold the temperature.
• Season the fish with salt and dredge in flour to coat.
• Dredge in beer batter and carefully fry in the hot oil until golden brown (approximately 3 minutes).
• Carefully remove the fish from the oil and place them on a plate lined with a paper towel to absorb any excess oil.
• Heat your tortillas either on a dry (no oil) comal or in a frying pan over medium heat – 30 seconds on each side.
• Evenly distribute 2 tbsp of chipotle aioli over 3 tortillas.
• Add fried fish.
• Evenly distribute coleslaw over tacos.
• Finish with cilantro and plate with your lime wedged on the side.