Mexican Fish, the Rodrigo-style fish
Crispy Rodrigo-style Mexican fish makes perfect fish tacos. Green onion jalopeño lime juice sauce adds a nice touch. Serve with corn tortilla!
My family loves Mexican food. I wish I can find a decent Mexican restaurant in our neighborhoods but there isn’t much to choose from. So that puts me into thinking that I should cook our family favorite Mexican food at home to satisfy our cravings. Unfortunately it is very difficult to find the Mexican groceries here in Argentina.
There is a pescaderia (fish market) that I go often to buy fresh seafood in San Isidro near I live. I found the fish below that looked similar to Tilapia. The fishmonger told me the name in Spanish, but the foreign name of one particular fish couldn’t stay that long in a tiny Korean woman’s brain. LOL!
I repeated the fish name in my mind a few times to not to forget while I was finishing the shopping in the market, but it left me eventually and I couldn’t remember it by the time I got home. All I remember is that it started with “P”. When you reach over 40 yrs of age, memorizing something in foreign language doesn’t work well.
Rodrigo-Style Fish
This particular Mexican fish recipe is called Rodrigo-style fish. I saw this recipe in a cookbook called Pati’s Mexican Table. She uses Tilapia for this recipe and also suggested to use any mild white fish fillet such as sea bass, grouper, red snapper or rock fish.
The skin of the fish is crisp and the flesh is soft yet firm. It is refreshingly delicious with the sauce made with green onion, jalopeño, lime and cilantro. So easy and simple to put together, this will make a great weeknight meal with some corn tortilla. Why not have yourself and your family a fish taco night with this recipe?
Pat dry your fish fillet with paper towel, and season well with salt and pepper. You will want to coat with flour before frying in oil.
The sauce is simple. Just chop green onion, jalopeño, cilantro. I removed the seeds from jalopeño. You can include if you desire more heat.
Then mix with olive oil, lime juice and soy sauce. Season more with salt.
That’s all. Drizzle over your fried fish and enjoy the crispness this fish offers. The flaky meat is just so lovely. It is suggested to eat with corn tortilla, but for being an Asian, I ate with rice. Nice, huh?
Hope you can give it a try if you get hold of fresh white meat fish fillet with their skin on. Even a fish hater might like this.
Mexican Fish, the Rodrigo-style fish
Ingredients
- 6 about 6 oz each tilapia fillets or other mild white fish such as sea bass, grouper, red snapper, or rock fish, rinsed and patted dry
- 1/4 teaspoon each kosher salt
- freshly ground pepper to taste
- all-purpose flour
- vegetable oil for frying
- 12 corn tortilla
For the sauce:
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion, white and light green parts only
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoon chopped jalopeño or serrano chili, optional
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- Kosher salt to taste
Instructions
- To make the sauce: combine the green onion, cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, jalopeño, and soy sauce. Set aside for 15 minutes. Season with salt if necessary to taste.
- Season the fish fillet with salt and pepper. Coat each fillet with flour lightly.
- Heat 1/4 inch of vegetable oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add the fish, in batches to avoid crowding, and sear for about 3 minutes until browned.
- Turn and sear another 3 minutes on the other side. The fish is ready when the thickest part is cooked through and it flakes easily with a fork. Transfer the fish to a paper towel-lined baking sheet and keep warm in a lo (250˚F) oven.
- Transfer the fish to a platter and pour the sauce on top. Serve with corn tortilla.
This is an amazing recipe. I put a whole red snapper in a broiler instead of frying it and we had a fish taco night with black bean and corn salad.
This recipe is INCREDIBLE!! It is so packed with flavor. For this reason I’d say the sauce itself would feed three. I couldn’t get enough of it. I served this with cheesy rice and black beans and loved having the sauce soak into the rice as well once I poured it over the fish. Thanks for a great recipe!
Names of fish frequently caught and available in fish markets in Argentina. (Spanish → English, 20 entries)
http://wordcurious.com/wordlists/17-argentine-fish
Just looked up out of curiosity.
Your avid follower from Korea. ^^
I think, that’s it! Pescadilla. It was long slender fish with snapper-like meaty texture. Thanks, Jason!
Oh… that really looks scrumptious!
We have several good Mexican restaurants close to us — we’re lucky. Really fun recipe — great way to prepare fish. Good stuff — thanks.
Lucky you! I miss good Mexican food.