I had this idea to do a party menu featuring wild ingredients of all sorts. So, in keeping with the Wild theme of this party menu, we are featuring wild-caught halibut in these tacos. But not just plain old fish! The macadamia crusted halibut coats the fish with buttery macadamia nuts and panko breadcrumbs—which will impress your guests even further, and make the bites a bit more substantial and succulent. If you don’t want to put the fish into tacos, you can just serve the fish bites with the dipping sauce, they are sensational.
In this recipe we made our own mini taco shells from large wraps, using a glass to cut the circles. Adding the frisee not only presents a cool, citrus-y green color, but the bitterness cuts through the sweetness of the chutney in the sweet sour mayo. This is really an exceptional trio of tastes wrapped in a tortilla shell.
MAKES 32 MINI TACOS (YOU CAN STRETCH THIS OFFERING BY CUTTING THE BAKED FISH SLICES IN HALF)
PREHEAT OVEN 450º… MAKE THE FISH
1 1/4 LB halibut fillets, remove skin and cut into 1/2-inch slices (you should end up with 32)
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Set up a breading station, 3 bowls:
1 cup spelt flour
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2 eggs, beaten
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1 1/4 CUPS macadamia nuts, finely chopped (process in food processor for the quickest results)
1 1/4 CUPS panko breadcrumbs
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne
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Dredge fish in flour, then eggs, then macadamia-breadcrumbs mixture. Place fish on 2 baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake about 15 min, flipping once mid-way through baking, till breading is golden.
MAKE THE SWEET SOUR MAYO SAUCE
1/2 CUP Stonewall Kitchen Old Farmhouse Chutney
1/4 CUP mayonnaise
2 TB sriracha
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
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Combine ingredients in a small bowl.
CREATE MINI TACO WRAPS
4 wraps (11-inch) Aladdin Gourmet Sandwich Wraps
6 wraps (9-inch) Toufayan Hearth Baked Wraps Whole Wheat
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Create 3.25-inch taco shells from the large wraps. Take a sturdy glass (or cookie cutter), and starting at the very edge, press down and rotate glass to cut. Pull up the wrap while glass is on top to help separate. Work your way around the edge of the circle. You should get 9 taco shells from the 11-inch, and 5 perfect shells from the 9-inch (plus 2 with a little missing on the side). Keep these in a sealed container until ready to use so they don’t dry out.
ASSEMBLE THE TACOS
32 mini taco wraps
Sweet Sour Mayo sauce
frisee
cooked fish
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Slather sauce generously onto the taco wrap, lay a bed of frisee lettuce over one side, and top with a slice of fish (you can cut the fish pieces in half to maximize your taco offering). Fold taco shells over and press to seal. Line the tacos in a row to help keep them closed.
We've got more recipes featuring foraged and wild ingredients in 14 Exotic & Foraged
