Fish Tacos

Method

1. mix3 min
   crema and slaw first
   sour cream + mayonnaise + juice of one lime + 1/4 tsp salt into the crema; cabbage tossed with a squeeze more — everything cold happens before the oil heats, because fried fish waits for no garnish
2. whisk2 min
   batter at the last minute, lumps fine
   1 cup flour + baking powder + 1 tsp salt + cold beer, stirred just to a thin pancake consistency — the carbonation and the cold are the crispness; a batter mixed early goes flat and fries to a shell instead of a lace
3. prep3 min
   fish dried, dusted
   fish strips patted very dry and rolled in the remaining flour — the dry dust is what the wet batter grips; batter on a wet fillet slides off in the oil and the fish arrives naked
4. fry12 min
   350°F, four pieces at a time
   battered strips until deep gold and floating, about 3 minutes a batch, drained on a rack not paper — paper steams the bottom crust soft; the rack keeps the crunch that was the whole point of frying
5. toast3 min
   dry skillet
   tortillas until pliable and spotted, kept in a towel — double them up per taco; a single corn tortilla under juicy fried fish is a structural failure in progress
6. top3 min
   fish, slaw, crema, cilantro, lime
   in that order — hot crisp fish, cold crunching cabbage, cool acid crema; the taco is the temperature contrast, which is why assembled-ahead fish tacos are a contradiction