Monkfish Tacos with Pickled Red Onion and Salsa

You can seize the day, but you can’t stop time. The flower that blooms today droops tomorrow. Fleeting moments flash by with ever-increasing velocity. How can you put the brakes on the gravitational pull of time passing? That’s the billion dollar question. When you figure out the answer, please enlighten all of us here on JC.

Meanwhile, carpe diem with this wonderful Monkfish Tacos with Pickled Red Onion and Salsa prepared by Chef Jimmy Gennaro in his cooking class at  Whole Foods Market. It will disappear faster than you can say “Monkfish Tacos with Pickled Red Onion and Salsa.”

Monkfish Tacos with Pickled Red Onion and Salsa

• 2 lbs skinless monkfish fillet (or mahi-mahi)
• 2 oz fresh lemon juice, or lime or orange juice (1 1/2 lemons)
• 2 T each olive oil, chopped cilantro
• 2 small garlic cloves, minced
• sea salt

Heat BBQ or grill pan.

In a large baking dish, whisk juice, oil, cilantro and garlic. Add the fish and turn to coat. Season fish with salt and marinate for 5-15 minutes.

Grill over moderately high heat, until white throughout. Transfer to a plate and flake into large pieces.

Serve with tortillas, avocado, pickled red onion and salsa. Serves 8.

Pickled Red Onion

• 1 small red onion, halved
• 1/2 c fresh lime juice (3 1/2 limes)
• 1 1/2 t sea salt

Thinly slice onion.

In a non-reactive bowl, cover onion with boiling water and let rest for 10 seconds, then strain well. Mix onions with lime juice and salt. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Lift the bright pink onions out of the liquid to serve. Can be served as a side dish, in sandwiches or salads. Lasts at least a week in the fridge.

Salsa

• 2 tomatoes, seeded, diced
• 1/3 c chopped cilantro
• 1/4 c finely chopped onion
• 1/2 jalapeño, seeded, minced (more or less according to your taste)
• 1 T lime juice (1/2 a lime)
• 1/2 t sea salt

In a medium-sized bowl, mix all ingredients, then refrigerate. Remove any liquid that separates out before serving. Recipe can be doubled, making half spicy and half not to accommodate all tastes. Even if you never make fish tacos, this salsa recipe is fabulous.

Garnish

• 6-inch flour tortillas, 2-3 per person, wrapped in tinfoil in stacks of 5 and warmed in the oven at 350F for 10 minutes
• cilantro leaves
• 3 avocados, diced

Monkfish Tacos with Pickled Red Onion and Salsa Print Ready Recipe

Final notes:

• A huge welcome to the family to my new lovely daughter-in-law, Cecilia Esquivel. These Monkfish Tacos with Pickled Red Onion and Salsa will make her feel right at home.
• Here are 16 Fish and Sea Food Taco recipes to peruse.
• New to Mexican cuisine? Know the differences between tacos, nachos, burritos, fajitas and tortillas?
• Check out 3 ways to warm tortillas.  Choose between flour and corn tortillas.