Fish (plus any batter you use)
Corn or flour tortillas
Rice and beans (optional)
Veggies (cabbage, tomatoes, onions, herbs, etc)
Cheese
Sauce (sour cream or yogurt)
If you want tacos, use small corn tortillas (not taco shells or toastado tortillas!...they should be fresh and soft). You heat them on a gas stove (no pans), turning every few seconds till hot. Or you can use a toaster oven. They should be warmed through but not crisp. Watch them carefully.
If you want burritos, use flour tortillas (the size is your choice but I'd start with medium if you aren't sure). Heat them like corn tortillas.
The fish is made any way you wish. Start with fresh fish (cod, mahi mahi, any firm white fish is good). You can grill or broil the fish. Or bake it in an olive oil, wine or vinegar, and soy sauce sauce. Or stir fry it. You can use leftover cooked fish too. The classic is of course to batter it and fry (or deep fry) it.
If you want to add rice and beans (as a side dish or right there in the burrito--you can do it in tacos too but there's not as much room), have them ready (sorry, you'll have to find recipes for them elsewhere but I do have a recipe for blackbeans.
Have fresh veggies ready too. Slice raw cabbage thin, as for coleslaw but even thinner. Chop onions. Chop tomatoes Dice up fresh cilantro. You can sub lettuce for the cabbage. Avocados are great. Use what you like.
I like cooked veggies in my burritos too, in addition to or instead of the fish. Onions, garlic, mushrooms, cactus (you can get it sliced in jars, very yummy) are all good, but be creative. SautÈ in olive or other oil until cooked through and very soft. Salt is optional but no other seasoning is needed.
Grate cheese. Jack cheese is the classic type (or the American version anyway). Cheddar is also good but even better in combo with the jack.
Make the sauce. You have two choices for the base of white sauce, sour cream and yogurt Both are used extensively in California. I use it plain. If there are other ingredients with liquid (sautÈed veggies for example) then you definitely don't need anything else in the sauce. If you want it thinner, just put in a bowl and mix and let it sit out longer enough to get softer (just a few minutes, not long enough to go bad). I'm not sure exactly what the tacorias use in the sour cream or yogurt to make it more runny. Possibly water or milk. Others might have a recipe. The authentic cream is like sour cream only more watery. If you can find it, you can use it. Low or non fat yogurt or sour cream work fine here.
Now you're ready to start cooking. Here's the order: make rice and beans. The rice takes about an hour and the beans several hours. You can make them the day before and just heat them up as you cook the fish. If you use canned beans, heat them up then too. Prep any veggies you are going to cook. Prepare raw veggies, grate cheese, make sauce, get out any extras you will use such as salsa or hot sauce (if you are a good cook, do these things while cooking the fish or sautéed veggies). Cook the fish and the sautéed veggies.
When everything is done: get the plates. Heat the tortillas. Fill the tortillas, roll or fold, and serve. Make each serving fresh or the tortillas will get soggy. You don't want to be heating up the whole thing in a microwave either, though that's okay for restaurant leftovers. It tastes better if you heat a tortilla and then add the hot or cold ingredients as they are meant to be separately. It's fun if everyone fills their own tortilla (with help not to overfill) that way they can choose the ingredients they want and the proportions.
(posted to rec.food.recipes 1/98)
