My husband Jim got motivated to try his fail-safe Fish Taco recipe with some wild substitutions: dandelion greens and pickled ramps. Jim can cook! We have always divided the cooking and cleaning for the last 40 years and it’s a toss-up who is better. What Jim is unquestionably better at is plant identification. I always run my foraged produce by him to make sure I have what I think I have picked and not something poisonous. He has caught me a couple of times – never on something poisonous. I’m not that dumb a dunce. We have a degree or two in Botany. However, he has spent his career immersed in Appalachian forests identifying plants, while I have not. I do not recommend anyone goes out and collects anything to eat all alone unless you are an expert. I think it’s wise to have an expert around. A Nona or Grandma will do if they are steeped in the heritage of foraging like mine was. An expert is someone who has, for years, eaten lots of what you’ve just picked and they are alive and well.
Back to Jim’s fish taco recipe. It’s a keeper in our household.
Jim’s Fish Taco Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup ramps chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
- 1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 cup lightly packed fresh dandelion leaves, chopped, plus more for garnish
- 1 jalapeno, stemmed and chopped
- 1 pound flaky mahi mahi
- Salt
- 8 fresh corn tortillas
- Plain yogurt
- Fresh tomato salsa
- 1/3 cup radish sprouts (optional)
- 2 limes, cut into quarters
Marinate the Ramps: Put ramps in a small bowl and pour in enough red wine vinegar to cover well. Set aside for 30 minutes or more.
Marinate the Fish: Pour the olive oil into a small bowl. Add the ancho chile powder, oregano, cumin, chopped dandelion, and jalapeno. Mix well. Place the fish on a dish and pour the marinade over it, making sure to coat the fish well on both sides. Marinate for 20 minutes.
Cook the Fish: Heat a frying pan on medium-high heat. Remove fish from marinade and place in hot pan. Season fish with salt. Cook fish for 4 minutes undisturbed, then turn over, and cook another 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat and flake fish into the pan with fork, making sure to mix in all the marinade that stuck to the bottom of the pan. Check for seasoning and add more salt if needed. Set aside.
Heat the Tortillas: Put 4 tortillas on a plate and sandwich them between two slightly dampened sheets of paper towel. Microwave on high for 45 seconds. Place the warm tortillas on a towel-lined plate and cover. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.
Assemble and Serve: We set up a buffet line with the tortillas, fish, ramps, yogurt, dandelion greens, salsa, and limes all in separate bowls with serving spoons so each person can make their own. The general rule is we grab a plate and place a spoonful of the marinated flaked fish onto the center of a tortilla, top with the marinated ramps, decorate with the yogurt, salsa, additional dandelion greens, radish sprouts, garnish with lime wedges and enjoy. We do three on each plate for starters.
Tips:
- Dandelions grow in lawns, along roads, and along edges of disturbed areas. They are everywhere. It’s best to pick them before they flower but that never stopped me. Find the flowers and trace back to the base of the flower to the swirl of leaves that look like one in the taco recipe photo above (front right and center). They are best if you clip them above the fat stemmy part at the bottom. The leaf tips are what I harvest although the photo shows almost the whole stemmy part I usually cut off. Jim must have collected that one:)
- If they are too bitter, you can boil them about 3 minutes and pour off the water. Taste again and if they are still too bitter, repeat.
You can eat that? 