Baja-Style Tempura Fish

Ingredients

• 10 servings cabbage 
• 1 cup flour all-purpose
• 10 cloves garlic sliced
• 0.8 cup water 
• 0.5 cup juice of lime fresh
• 2 teaspoons oregano dried ()
• 1 tablespoon sea salt fine
• 2  serrano chiles stemmed sliced
• 2 pounds young shark fillet cut into 4 by 3/4-inch strips (see headnote)
• 10 servings vegetable oil for deep-frying
• 1.5 cups water 
• 50 2-inch corn tortillas white soft for serving ()
• 2.5 teaspoons mustard yellow

Equipment

• bowl
• paper towels
• whisk
• pot
• kitchen thermometer
• skimmer

Directions

1. To make the marinade, in a large bowl, combine the 1 1/2 cups water, lime juice, garlic, chiles, oregano, and salt.
2. Add the fish strips and let marinate for at least 20 minutes.
3. To make the tempura batter, in a separate bowl, whisk together the ice water and mustard. Gently stir in the flour, but don’t overmix; a few small lumps are okay. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Drain the shark pieces and pat them dry with a paper towel.
5. Have a plate lined with paper towels ready. In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, heat at least 2 to 3 inches of oil over medium heat until it reaches 360°F on a deep-fat thermometer.
6. Remove the batter from the refrigerator and stir once more. Dredge the fish pieces in the batter, a few at a time, to evenly coat. Drop them in the hot fat, 2 pieces at a time, adding 2 more pieces every 30 seconds (fry no more than 4 pieces at a time). Monitor the temperature of the hot oil throughout frying, letting the oil return to proper temperature, if necessary, between batches; to ensure crispness, it must remain a constant 360°F to 380°F. If too low, the fish will be oily; if too hot, the pieces will burn.
7. Fry them until crisp, light golden brown, and floating in the oil, about 2 1/2 minutes per batch. With a fine-mesh skimmer, transfer the fish tempura to the paper-towel-lined plate to absorb the excess oil. Repeat with the remaining pieces of fish. During frying, be sure to remove any pieces of floating batter, or they will burn and darken the oil, which will transfer a burned flavor to the tempura.
8. Serve immediately.
9. To serve, lay the tortillas side by side, open face and overlapping on a platter. Divide the slaw and filling equally between the tortillas and top with salsa and garnish. Grab, fold, and eat right away. Or build your own taco: lay a tortilla, open face, in one hand. Spoon on some slaw, then filling, top with salsa, fold, and eat right away.
10. Taste
11. Book, using the USDA Nutrition Database
12. Tacos by Mark Miller with Benjamin Hargett and Jane Horn. Copyright © 2009 by Mark Miller with Benjamin Hargett and Jane Horn. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.Mark Miller is the acclaimed chef-founder of Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has started and owned thirteen different restaurants on three continents from 1979 to 200
13. He is the author of ten books with nearly 1 million copies in print, including Tacos, The Great Chile Book, The Great Salsa Book, and Coyote Cafe. Mark currently works in International Culinary Consulting and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.Benjamin Hargett is a travel-loving chef who has cooked in Europe, the Carribean, Mexico, and the United States, where he worked with Mark Miller at the Coyote Café for many years.