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Quick and Tasty Fish Tacos - eating in front of the XBox is optional

This dish is inspired by two meals I enjoyed at my excellent friend and “Good Cook Cooker” Despina’s home. She made pan-fried fish tacos one night for a social evening, and veggie quesadillas one day while I was there working on a project.

This is an unintentional combination of the two, and is just delicious, and fast becoming a staple for us (as it’s also inexpensive). Note that mine are not pan-fried, not for any healthy-sounding reasons but that it simply seems like a lot of hoo-ha and these ended up being really good as they are so I sort of stopped there.

Now, here are the exact ingredients as we purchase them, and instructions as I make them. But it’s quite free-form, substitute away! Fresher and homemade/homegrown ingredients would be far superior, and pan-frying the filets would be super yummy as well. If you hit on other great combos, or have your own favorite fish taco recipe, just do me a favor and drop a note here in the comments so I may try it too!

Ingredients:

Small (8″) flour tortillas
Bagged shredded mild cheddar cheese
Bagged mixed baby greens
Bagged (seeing the theme here?) broccoli slaw
Bagged frozen fish filets – we like Perch for this
Daisy sour cream
Bottled mild chunky salsa
Butter
Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, lemon-pepper seasoning

Cook the filets:

Preheat oven or broiler. Depending on their size, allow one or two fish filets per person. Arrange the them in a broiling pan or cookie sheet, brush a little butter on top, plus salt, pepper, and lemon-pepper seasoning. Preheat the oven or broiler, and cook the fish filets according to the instructions. (Why does my computer keep trying to spell-correct filets? Is it fillets? Wow, it took that. No really, I’m sure it should be filets. I’m going to ignore that little squiggly red underline and so should you.)

Meanwhile,

• Preheat pan, skillet or griddle to somewhere between medium and medium high, about 4 o’clock on my stovetop which I realize doesn’t help you at all. Have all other ingredients on the ready, because once the pan is hot this goes fast! Not too hot or the tortilla will burn before you get all the ingredients in.
• Drop a partial pat of butter into the pan – or for you measureheads, let’s say a teaspoon – spread it around with one tortilla and leave in the pan. QUICKLY layer evenly onto 1/2 the tortilla very small amounts of each the following: a pinch of cheese, pinch of broccoli slaw, a few greens, some fork-shreds of fish filet I am ignoring you angry red squiggle, a spoon of sour cream and a bloop of salsa.
• Check the bottom of the tortilla, when you just start to see lovely browning like the photo, fold that bad boy in half with the spatula and press flattish for a moment. Flip it onto plate, give the griddle about 10 seconds to recover, and go again!
• You may be surprised how easy it is to overstuff these, it takes a few trial tacos to realize just how little of each ingredient you need.

Make 2 or 3 for each person. Enjoy.

Easy to make with only a microwave or hotplate, making it great for dorm rooms, late nights, lazy persons, and those in need of cheesy comfort. The Parmesan variation is a great comfort food personally, as to me many foods just serve as Parmesan delivery devices. Hope you enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of Ramen with its seasoning packet – chicken works well
• 1 processed cheese single – any kind (melts better than “real” cheese)
• Parmesan cheese (optional)
• Water

Directions:
Break noodle block into 8-10 pieces, put in pyrex or microwave safe bowl. Add enough water to cover noodles, and then another ¼ cup. Stir to be sure all noodles are wet. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes, or until you see the water just boil. Stir with fork and allow to sit for 1 minute. Pour off water until it is about the same level as the noodles (tricky, as the noodles are floating). Add about ½ of the seasoning packet. Tear cheese into strips or pieces and stir them into the broth. Allow your cheese sauce a moment to cool and set, sprinkle a bit of Parmesan on top and eat with fork or chopsticks.

Variations:

1. Sass (an old roommate’s method): add hot sauce and chili powder to taste
2. Comfort (MY METHOD): add up to a 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese, a few grinds of fresh pepper, stir or toss to coat
3. “Gourmett”: omit seasoning packet entirely, add shredded asagio and cheddar, 1 sprig rosemary (chopped), kosher salt and ground pepper

What. This is a real recipe!!

Have funner variations of your own? Insert into comments section below.