Fish Tacos a la vegan.

I had, several times, pondered the idea coupling nori & tofu before actually tasting my first plate of vegan fish & chips, naturally enough, by the seaside in Brighton, England. I remember it was a pop-up supper in a cozy , candle lit deli. My plate was piled high with fat doorstep chips, a side of mushy peas and a generous, creamy mound of tartar sauce. The ‘fish’ was encased in a gluten free beer batter, deep fried. It was oily, chewy and delicious. I loved the dish, so I never thought it was going to take me two years to recreate it so that I could make it at will! But, house sitting doesn’t always lend it self to having the luxury of getting into a domestic flow. One is constantly on shifting sands and by the time you’ve settled and googled mapped the stores you will shop at, the park you will walk around, the best coffee house to sit in, soak up the atmosphere and write, and got yourself familiar the new home (to a standard where you’d not get lost if you got up in the night to pee) then it usually is time to move on again. My ‘must try’ and ‘recipe development’ lists remain of biblical length.

Anyway, recently in Los Angeles long enough to settle (but lumped with the pressure of shelling out for a wedge of cash for a knock in a car I had not factored into my budget) the long list of restaurants to try in LA I’d excitedly scribbled down had to remain just that..a long unchecked list. It was necessary to save a few bucks so on went my frilly apron. So it was time to DIY and figure out how to make vegan fish and chips, and make them gluten free too!

I drew a little inspiration from Vegan Dad and then adjusted here and there to make it gluten free. I was really pleased with the result. Recalling a trip to Austin, where I ate fabulous vegan fish tacos from a vegan food truck, I opted to house the fish in corn rather than alongside a stack of chips (chips as in fries). You can do as you please of course, but I craved tacos.

Vegan Faux Fish Tacos

Ingredients

250g extra firm tofu

1 pck roasted seaweed snack (nori sheets) 11g

1/2 cup of each: garbanzo; cornmeal flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp garlic powder

vegan egg replacer - 3 ‘eggs’, or make 3 chia or flax ‘eggs’.

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

pinch chili powder

Tartar sauce

1/2 cup Veganaise or Just Mayo (or similar vegan mayo)

2 large pickled cucumbers

squeeze lemon juice

Method

Remove the tofu from the package and discard water. Place the block of tofu between a few sheets of kitchen roll and place on a plate. Put another 2 or 3 plates on top to create some weight so that the tofu can drain for about 20mins. Once drained, remove the plates and the kitchen paper. Put the tofu in a high sided dish.

Whilst waiting for the tofu to drain, make your tartar sauce. Spoon your mayonnaise into a serving bowl and diced the pickled cucumbers. Add the cucumbers to the mayonnaise and squeeze over the juice of about 1/4 of a lemon (or to taste) mix with a spoon. Set aside.

Splash over some gluten free soy sauce (or use Braggs) on both sides. Drain the excess.

Grab two large plates and in one add your chosen egg replacer. In the other mix the flours, bicarb of soda, salt, pepper and chilli.

Cut the tofu into 1.5 inch cubes. Then cut the roasted nori to 1.5 inch strips. Fold the nori around the tofu. The dampness from the tofu will make the nori sheets more pliable.

Then dip first into the egg replacer and then into the flour mix. Ensure it is all covered. Set each ‘fish’ portion aside onto a plate until you have covered and coated each one.

Now, I am always trying to be healthy and so I tried to bake these in the oven first. They were very nice. But not ‘table slammingly’ good. So I shallow fried them, just a minute or two each side until they had browned. I then warmed some corn tacos and began to put it all together. Taco cradled in my hand, I placed over a few cubes of the ‘fish’, dressed it with some romaine lettuce, dolloped over generous spoons of tartar sauce. Squeezed over a drizzle of lemon and then took a large bite.

Mmn, I hummed. My eyes closed. It tasted so good. The warm masa, the crisp corn crumb coating, the soft tofu and the flavours of the slightly chewy seaweed and the creamy, tart sauce. Yes. So good.

You do not want to wait as long as I did to get this into your recipe repertoire.