Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Tacos are a tasty treat
Main ingredient comes from Beaver Lake
We’d be mighty hungry this season at Camp See No Deer if it wasn’t for fishing.
The catching has been lights-out good this winter for striped bass at Beaver Lake. Some days, bowhunting the wary white-tail has taken a back seat to fishing when the stripers are going gang busters.
Lately, fish tacos have been our favorite grub du jour. They’re easy to fix and a great way to cook up some fish meat when deer meat isn’t taking up room in the freezer. Stripers have to be 20 inches or longer to keep at Beaver Lake. The daily limit is three. There’s quite a bit of meat on filets from a 20-inch fish.
Stripers are like white bass in that there’s a strip of red meat in each filet that has a strong fishy taste. It’s a good idea to get the red out when you filet a striper and get ready to cook up some fish tacos.
Here at Camp See No Deer we love to tinker with recipes, so it’s natural that we’re not satisfied with just plain old fish tacos. We take a step up on the grilling ladder to create our favorite — blackened fish tacos.
Blackening doesn’t mean burning your food to a crisp like we first thought. It’s all about spices. With blackened chicken, blackened fish or blackened whatever, your dish might come out looking black, but it’ll taste great. If blackening isn’t your thing, cook the fish any way you’d like.
Striped bass are an ideal main ingredient for fish tacos. Filets are nice and thick, but most any fish will do such as crappie, walleye or black bass. If your fishing luck is like ours at Camp See No Deer, you can use storebought fish such as tilapia or catfish. Here’s how to make fish tacos:
Have some cole slaw ready and whatever other fish taco filings sound good, maybe chopped onion, grated cheese or sliced avocado. Set out some corn or flour tortillas.
Even when the weather is chilling, we’re grilling. Fire up some charcoal so the coals will be good and hot.
Next, have a store-bought blackening spice handy or, better yet, make your own. At Camp See No Deer we mix together 1½ teaspoon paprika, 1½ teaspoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon oregano, ¾ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon cumin, ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper.
Rub both sides of your filets with blackening spices. Cook them on a hot grill for about 3 minutes per side until the center of the filets measure 145 degrees with your instant-read digital thermometer.
Now warm some tortillas on the grill, in the microwave or in a pan on the stove. Slice or chop the cooked fish and build your fish tacos.
Fish and cole slaw are the main ingredients. You’ve caught your own fish, now make your own cole slaw. It’s easy to make tasty vinegar-based cole slaw the Camp See No Deer way. You’ll need one bag of cole slaw, some thinly sliced onion, plus some sugar and a few other items to make the dressing.
In a pan, mix together ½ cup white vinegar, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon sugar, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon celery seed and ½ teaspoon ground mustard powder. Bring to a boil, stirring until a white froth forms. Lower the heat but keep the dressing warm.
With part of the bagged cole slaw, make a layer of cole slaw and sliced onion in a large bowl. Sprinkle on a bit of sugar. Make two more layers using the rest of the cole slaw, onion slices and sprinkles of sugar. Pour the warm dressing over the cole slaw, but don’t stir or mix it. Refrigerate for six hours and it’s ready to go. It’s delicious fish-taco filling, along with the fish, cheese and other taco treats.
Now if the deer start cooperating, we’ll try some venison tacos.