This meal started with dropping in at Cappos seafood wholesalers on the way home from the city. I bought some swordfish at a good price. I used Eat Your Books to find out that my cookbooks contain 30 swordfish recipes.
Tacos by Mark Miller has a recipe for swordfish tortillas. He cuts the fish into cubes but I didn't want to . The swordfish was marinated in the following:
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
2 tsp dried oregano, toasted and ground (he said Mexican oregano but I had run out... which is a funny story that I'll tell you sometime...)
1 1/2 tbsp chopped garlic
1/2 long red chilli (the milder type) diced - Miller uses 1 Habanero chilli (VERY hot) and 1 Fresno chilli (?). My people don't like heat so I improvised. It could have been hotter.
2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 tbsp lemon-infused oil (we happened to have a bottle of lime infused oil which was crying to be used)
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp sugar
3 tsp achiote paste
Now that last one will stump you. I didn't have a block of achiote but I remembered that I had annato seeds, which achiote paste is made from. So I made a quick paste based on this recipe. If I didn't have achiote paste, I reckon I'd just add 3 tsp medium taco sauce (OK its a completely different flavour, but I'm trying to make it easier.)
You'r'e supposed to marinate the fish for 3 hours but it was more like 1.5 hours.
For the rest of it:
Baked corn cobs
Cherry tomatoes, red onion and mushroom sauteed briefly
Wheat flour (not corn) tortillas - I wish they looked browner)
A salsa-type sauce made from charred onion, garlic, tomatoes, chilli and red capsicum with toasted cumin and oregano, salt.
Avocado slice with a lime slice on top, and some random rocket and coriander leaves.
Oh yeah, and I made the tortillas - 2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tbsp marg/butter rubbed through. 1/4 - 1/2 cup warm water. Makes 8 - i didn't roll these out thinly as we normally do. Maize flour is different but I sometimes mix the flours. (Rest the dough for 15 mins). Fry in a dry pan over high heat for a short time on each side until they start to brown.
The last thing to add is that I cooked a second batch of fish in the pan, and with the spices and juices already in there, the second lot came out much more charred and looking (and tasting) fantastic
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