Crispy Fish Tacos: The Best Australian Fish for the Job

TL;DR: Use flathead, ling, snapper or barramundi. Dry the fish properly, mix the batter at the last second with very cold beer, fry at 180°C, and drain on a rack. Sharp cabbage, chipotle cream, lime.

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Fish tacos are the best possible use of a cheap white fillet, and they are one of the few dishes where a batter genuinely improves the fish rather than hiding it. The contrast is the whole point: hot crisp batter, cold sharp cabbage, cool sauce, a hit of lime.

There are only two ways to get this wrong. The wrong fish, and wet fish. Everything else is forgiving.

Choosing the fish

You want firm, mild and lean. Firm so it survives the oil, mild so it sits under chipotle and lime rather than arguing with them, lean because oily fish turns heavy under batter.

• Flathead is the best of the lot. The fillets are already the right shape, the flesh is sweet and firm, and it fries in three minutes. It is also one of the better value fish on the counter.
• Ling holds together beautifully and has a slightly meaty texture that suits a taco.
• Snapper is a step up in flavour and works very well grilled rather than battered.
• Barramundi is firm enough for either method, and the skin off fillets need no work at all.
• Whiting is delicate but excellent if you are gentle with it.

Skip: salmon, tuna, mackerel and kingfish. All good fish, all wrong here. Their oil fights the acid and the smoke.

The batter

Three rules and the batter looks after itself.

Cold liquid. Very cold beer or soda water. The temperature difference between the batter and the oil is what makes the coating puff and stay light. A lager or a pale ale is right, a stout is not.

Cornflour in the mix. A third of the flour weight as cornflour keeps the crust crisp for longer, because it has no gluten to go soft. This is the difference between tacos that are still crunchy at the table and tacos that are not.

Mix it at the last moment. Batter made twenty minutes early has lost its bubbles. Whisk it while the oil comes up to temperature and use it straight away. Lumps are fine, an overworked batter is not.

Frying it properly

Shallow fry in about 2 cm of oil. You do not need a deep fryer and you do not need a litre of oil.

• 180°C. Use a thermometer if you have one. If you do not, drop in a cube of bread: it should turn gold in about 45 seconds.
• Dry fish, always. Paper towel every strip. This is the single most common failure.
• Batches of four or five. Crowding drops the oil temperature and everything goes soggy at once.
• Lay it away from you. Hold one end, let the strip drop in going away from your hand.
• Drain on a wire rack. Paper towel traps steam under the fish and undoes the crust in ninety seconds.

Three to four minutes total, turning once. The fish is done well before the batter is properly gold, so trust the colour of the coating.

The two things on top that matter

The cabbage. Shred red cabbage as fine as you can manage, toss it with lime juice and salt, and leave it while you cook. Ten minutes of sitting turns it from raw and woody into something bright and slightly pickled. This is the counterweight to the fried fish and skipping it makes the whole taco heavy.

The sauce. Sour cream, mayonnaise, chipotle, lime. It needs to be thin enough to drizzle, so loosen it with water. If you have no chipotle, use sriracha and a pinch of smoked paprika.

Avocado, coriander and a wedge of lime finish it. Resist adding more. A taco with six toppings is a bowl of salad you eat with your hands.

The grilled version

If you do not want to fry, the original Baja street version is grilled and it is genuinely as good.

Toss the fish strips with olive oil, smoked paprika, cumin, garlic powder, salt and lime zest. Sear in a very hot pan or on the barbecue plate for about 2 minutes a side. Build the tacos exactly the same way.

This version takes fifteen minutes start to finish and is the better weeknight option.

Tortillas

Corn tortillas are traditional and taste better. Flour tortillas are sturdier and easier for children. Either way, warm them in a dry pan for twenty seconds a side until they puff slightly and go pliable. A cold tortilla straight from the packet cracks when you fold it and tastes of nothing.

Double them up if you are using corn, which is what taquerias do, because one corn tortilla will not hold a battered fillet without tearing.

Quantity Planning

Battered fish for tacos: 175 grams of raw fillet per adult, which is three tacos each. As part of a spread with rice, beans and salads: 120 grams a head. Tortillas: three small ones per adult, and buy a few extra because they tear.

For eight people, that is about 1.4 kilograms of fillets, which is one large tray of flathead.

Where to Source It

Tasman Star runs flathead, ling, snapper and barramundi fillets through the counter fresh, all of them skin off and ready to cut into strips. Flathead is the pick for tacos and it is usually the best value fish in the cabinet. Ask the team to cut the fillets into taco strips for you and you skip the only fiddly part of the prep.

Find us at 5 to 7 Olsen Ave, Labrador or 20 Casua Dr, Varsity Lakes, open 7 AM to 6 PM, 7 days.

Browse white fish fillets and order online for Gold Coast delivery.