A couple of days ago I posted a recipe for Green Papaya Salad, and mentioned, at the end, that we were thinking of serving this as part of a fish taco dinner.
Last night, that’s exactly what we had for dinner.
I bought some cod loin and had planned to cook it indoors on the griddle, but Bill got to it before I did and grilled it outside – a much better idea.
I’d bought soft tacos (plain and multigrain), hard shell corn tacos, and some guacamole. I usually make my own guacamole, but the avocados were either rock hard or mushy yesterday, so I just bought some yummy Wholly Guacamole instead.
We also thawed several cubes of Red Thai Curry Paste from our stash in the freezer and cooked those with some coconut milk to make a little sauce.
Simple as anything!
So our spread consisted of the following:
Grilled cod
Green papaya salad
Red Thai curry sauce
guacamole
leftover garnishes from our pho dinner the other night – bean sprouts, Thai basil leaves, cilantro, lime wedges
shredded cheese
taco sauce (from a package of Ortega taco stuff)
I think that was everything.
The cheese and taco sauce were for the kids – they weren’t going to have the curry sauce or the papaya salad.
They like the bean sprouts, however, and at one point Alex got really fancy with his taco creating:
That is a flour tortilla, a mound of cod, a dab of guacamole, and a pinch of cheese, garnished with a ring of bean sprouts and dotted with taco sauce.
My kids need their own cooking show.
He didn’t want to eat it at first – at least, not until a good picture had been taken. Really, I’ve created little monsters here – both kids ran to get their cameras, and then I sent Alex to get mine, too, just in case the kids’ pictures didn’t come out clearly enough.
Once the pictures were taken, he was okay to eat.
Since I had my camera, I figured I really should take pictures of a couple of tacos. Bill and I tried these with both hard and soft shells, and we agree the soft is better in this case. But both were totally delicious.
The pictures are terrible, I admit. I was in a hurry.
This taco (above) and the one in the very first image consist of fish, guacamole (I like the creamy texture in there, Bill didn’t use it), red Thai curry sauce, green papaya salad, a few Thai basil leaves, and some cilantro.
Y. U. M.
The blend of flavors – mmmmmmmm – the charcoal-grilled fish was smoky and a bit firm, sweet, and delicious. The papaya salad added crunch along with the flavors of lime and fish sauce and a bit of heat. More heat – and more flavor – came from the curry sauce. And then the basil and cilantro add a really bright, fresh-from-the-garden element to it all. The guacamole contributes some creaminess, mainly – you can’t really taste it too much beneath the curry paste and papaya salad.
Yum and yum and yum and yum.
I’d have taken a nicer picture this morning, but the fish and curry paste were gone at the end of the meal. And it’s funny – Julia didn’t even eat a lot of fish – she often goes vegetarian with her tacos. She’ll take a soft taco, spread a little guacamole on it, sprinkle some cheese and taco sauce, and she’s done.
So, yeah, Bill and Alex and I were the three fish-eating gluttons last night.
But if you like Thai flavors, and fish (chicken or pork would work nicely, too…or shrimp), I am willing to bet that your self control would go out the window, too, if you were to have this for dinner.
Try it yourself, and let me know what you think!
