Fish Tacos & Bregeon 2005 Gros Plant

After researching arepas joints for the past two nights (Caracas in the East Village and El Cocotero in Chelsea) for FindEatDrink.com (coming soon) an evening at home with fish tacos and a bottle of wine seemed like a great idea. I was not in the mood for frying, so grilled tilapia was in order, purchased from the Lobster Place in Chelsea Market.

Ingredients
- small flour tortillas
- tilapia fillets (two fillets)
- fresh cilantro leaves
- 1/2 jalopeno, thinly sliced
- lime wedges
- 1 ripe Haas avocado
- 1/8 head of red cabbage, thinly sliced
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- Mexican crema (homemade alternative version): 1/4 cup sour cream, ~1/2 tablespoon lime juice, lime zest, 1 tablespoon buttermilk

Recipe
I made the crema ahead of time, basically mixing the sour cream, lime juice, lime zest, and buttermilk together. I used homemade buttermilk which was the result of making homemade butter over the weekend. The resulting crema is light, creamy, zesty.

The rest of the meal, is just as easy to prepare. Heat the oven to 300 degrees and pre-heat a grill pan on the stove top on medium high heat. Wrap the tortillas in foil, and put the package in the heated oven. Slice the tilapia fillets into 3/4 inch slices, coat with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Grill the slices on the hot grill pan, flipping when the edges of the slices start to turn a murky white color.

Now you get to make the fish taco however you want. I needed to add salt and lots of lime juice to make me happy, but it's entirely up to the person eating them.

Wine Pairing
I was choosing between beer and wine, but since I had paired beer with arepas the last two nights, I was in the mood for wine. This meant a crisp white with high acidity. I went with a Bregeon 2005 Gros Plant. A great summer wine. Lighter, very crisp, clean, a little minerality, lots of lime, lemon.