Beer-battered fried fish tacos with chipotle-lime dressing

Serendipity. I've said it before. It's my favorite word. A couple of weeks ago, Chasing Some Blue Sky, a wonderful food and life blog, featured pink grapefruit margaritas and grilled fish tacos with chipotle sauce. You'd better believe that caught my attention. Margaritas. Yum! Fish tacos with chipotle sauce. Double yum!

Unfortunately, my grill is currently buried under an ever-growing pile of snow. However, when Whole Foods featured fresh, wild-caught pollock fillets on sale, it was serendipity. We were going to have fish tacos. Fried in beer batter. I needed those extra calories after all that snow shoveling I've been doing lately. (Not really, but it was a good excuse.)

Beer-battered fried fish tacos with chipotle-lime dressing
Adapted from various sources

Batter:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup beer

Dressing:
1 (8 ounce) container light sour cream
1/2 cup adobo sauce from chipotle peppers
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons lime zest
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay™
salt and pepper to taste

Pico de gallo:
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced fine
1/4 medium onion, diced fine
1 fresh jalapeno, seeded and deveined, diced fine
1/2 lime
salt to taste

1 1/2 lb pollock, cod, or similar fish cut into small pieces
1 package of corn tortillas
1 small head cabbage, cored and shredded OR 1 package cole slaw mix
1 avocado, cut into thin slices
2 limes, cut in wedges
vegetable oil

Dressing: Combine the sour cream and adobo sauce in a bowl. Stir in the lime juice, lime zest, cumin, chili powder, seafood seasoning. Add salt, and pepper in desired amounts. Cover, and refrigerate until needed.

Pico de gallo: Combine tomatoes, onion, and jalapeno in a bowl. Squeeze lime into bowl and mix well. Add salt to taste and mix well again.

Beer batter: In a large bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Blend egg and beer, then quickly stir into the flour mixture (don't worry about a few lumps).

Heat about 1/4" vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Dip fish into beer batter, and fry in batches until crisp and golden brown, turning after a few minutes. Drain on paper towels. Add oil as needed.

Steam corn tortillas by wrapping them in a damp towel and heating in the microwave for 1 minute on high.

Assemble taco by placing fried fish on a tortilla. Add avocado slices and shredded cabbage. Drizzle with dressing and top with pico de gallo. Serve tacos with lime slices.