Recipe Sharing :: Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa

I have to admit, I totally stole the idea for these fish tacos from a friend of mine, but I added my own fruity twist. I make these fish tacos about once a week because they're filling, flavorful and it's a quick recipe. It's also great because you can eat the salsa and guac on the side with chips. My mom makes a wonderful mango salsa and I thought that it would go great with these fish tacos. The fish itself is the Panko Breaded Tilapia from Trader Joe's. I pretty much buy these in bulk. Tilapia is a very mild fish so even if you don't like fish, you'll still like these little guys. The third component to this recipe is guacamole. My recipe is pretty simple and I prefer my guacamole thicker than most. You can adapt it to your taste, obviously...

Tam Tam's Mango Salsa

• 2 fresh mangoes on the firm side
• 1/2 red onion diced
• 4 Roma tomatoes chopped
• Handful of cilantro chopped
• Juice of 1/2 lime
  
• Salt and Pepper

Basically dice the mangoes, onion and tomatoes and set aside in a bowl. Squeeze the juice of half a lime, add salt and pepper and mix. If you are going to eat this right away, add the cilantro. If you're making it ahead of time, wait to add the cilantro. It is a strong flavor and will overpower the salsa.

A word about cutting mangoes: Mangoes can be a little tricky to cut up. If you do it wrong, you end up wasting a lot of the good stuff. The long flat seed of the mango cannot be cut through, so you have to cut around it. Stand the mango up so that the pointier top is facing up. Starting at the top, slice along the flat side of the mango. The key is to go slow and feel for the seed with your knife. To get the most fruit, you want to curve your knife out at the top and back in at the bottom. Do this on both sides then try to cut away as much fruit from the seed as you can. With the two large pieces you cut off, score the yellow meat and then invert the skin and then run your knife along the skin to cut off all the cubes. Phew! I guess this is the point where I tell you that my mom uses frozen mangoes...

Simple Guacamole

• 2 ripe avocados
• 3 Roma tomatoes diced
• 1/2 red onion
• cilantro
• 1 lime
  
• 1 jalapeno or Serrano pepper diced (if you don't like heat, leave it out)
  
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Since I like my guacamole on the chunky side, I like to dice on avocado and just scoop out the meat of the other. Mix the tomatoes, red onion, cilantro and peppers in a bowl. Add half of the lime juice. Mix in the avocado. If you like it chunky, toss gently with a spoon. If you want it smoother, smush and mix with a fork. (Yes, "smush" is the technical culinary term) Salt and pepper to taste.

OK! So bake up the tilapia per the instructions. 1 fillet makes 2 tacos, so plan accordingly. As you wait for the fish to cool off, turn off the oven and heat up flour tortillas on the rack. 20 seconds should do it. Cut the tilapia fillets into chunks and assemble your tacos. A little bit of everything - fold - eat - repeat.