Never have heard of a white sauce on fish tacos, or any Mexican dish, for that matter. And fish tacos and a lot of other regional Mexican dishes are topped with finely shredded cabbage instead of lettuce. But a white sauce?

Fish tacos are grilled or breaded chunks of firm white fish, shredded cabbage, maybe some onion and/or chopped tomato, maybe some cheese (not common), and whatever salsa you like.

The only fish taco I've ever had was at some little "hole in the wall" place in San Diego.
Several years ago.
I don't remember how it was made, or what was in it.
All I remember is, that it was really good.
I'd like to try them again, but have never seen them offered anywhere here.
So I'll be watching here for answers, too.
Maybe I'll be able to make my own.

Rusty

Sushipup, apparently we were typing at the same time.

The ones I had in San Diego did have a small amount of some kind of thin white sauce on them, it was good.
No Salsa, though.
The Mexican food there was very different than what we have here.

Rusty

Perhaps a Mexican-style creme fraiche? That would be the only white "sauce". Thinned sour cream will make do. You can find it with Mexican cheese in jars in the dairy case.

This has become a favorite of ours. Because of DH, I make them Heart healthy.
I am still interested if anyone has heard of the 'white sauce'.

This is the basic recipe I use for the fish tacos. I use mahi-mahi usually, have also used Alaskan Cod, and Halibut. I always cook the fish outside on the grill, and season with a fajita seasoning / rub. Let the fish cool, before trying to slice or chunk it.

I also buy white corn tortillas that I cook in the oven to crisp over a rack.

For the sauce, I omit the corn and use Fage 0% Greek yogurt - no mayo- and try to let it sit for 15-30 mins.

I was trying to reproduce what I had in a restaurant. They served a white corn tortilla inside a blue corn tortilla, and I did make 2 nestled together, but decided we didn't need the extra carbs.

Ellie Kreiger 's recipe:
Fish:

* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* Freshly ground black pepper
* 1 pound white flaky fish fillet, like tilapia or halibut

Chipotle cream:

* 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt
* 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
* 2 teaspoons chipotle pepper, in adobo sauce
* 8 (6-inch) corn tortillas
* 1 1/2 cups shredded green cabbage or lettuce
* 1/2 cup corn kernels (thawed if frozen)
* 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
* Lime wedges

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, lime juice, salt and pepper. Pour over the fish fillets and let marinate for 20 minutes. Put the yogurt into a strainer lined with apaper towel and place over a bowl to drain and thicken for 20 minutes.

Remove the fish from the marinade and grill on a preheated grill or nonstick grill pan over a medium-high heat until cooked thorough, about 3 minutes per side. Set the fish aside on a plate for 5 minutes.

In a small bowl combine the thickened yogurt, mayonnaise, and chipotle pepper.

Heat the tortillas on the grill or grill pan for 30 seconds on each side.

Flake the fish with a fork. Top each tortilla with 1 tablespoon of the chipotle cream. Top with fish, cabbage, corn and cilantro and serve with lime wedges.

Here's more on the Mexican Crema, which is what you're thinking of as a "sauce".

Here is a link that might be useful: Crema

what's the matter with just a basic white sauce with a fair amount of cream cheese added to it....and perhaps some chopped canned chilis?

"what's the matter with just a basic white sauce with a fair amount of cream cheese added to it....and perhaps some chopped canned chilis?"

It's a lot of trouble compared to using a little crema or creme fraiche from a jar, which would be authentic.

I made a version of this for our fish tacos on Mother's Day. I think I just used the mayo, yogurt (or sour cream), lime juice, cilantro, jalapeno, cumin, and cayenne. You can up the spices and heat to your taste.

1/2 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 lime, juiced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
1 teaspoon minced capers
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Teresa

I don't know about the white sauce, the fish tacos I had at Laguna Beach were from Wahoo's, and they were just fish, onion, cabbage, salsa in a crunchy taco, served with beans and rice and you could have sour cream, guacamole or salsa as toppings, but the sour cream and guacamole cost extra.

They were pretty darned good, but I think sushipup probably is close with the crema.

Annie

Yup, it's Crema that some use on fish tacos and even over enchiladas and such, not a regular white sauce. As Sushipup says just use a thinned down sour cream. For a more authentic taste do like you would to make creme fraiche and let it sit for a day or so before use, but it really is fine to use right away. Of course you can check around any Mexican stores or other places and see if you can find the crema.

The grocery store here does have the Crema.

I had no idea what it was for, or how it was to be used.

I'm kind of 'chicken' when I can't read the labels on things.

Going to have to try this soon, thanks for the recipes.

Rusty

And thank you, magothyrivergirl (whew! That's a long one to type) for asking that question.

Rusty

I worked with a chef for years who was originally from Mexico and he was very good about mixing various cuisines together. Basically, if it tasted good, he'd do it.

So, we ended up with Cajun Catfish tacos with a cilantro jalapeno cream sauce. It was one of our most popular bar food items. I believe they now even serve it in the restaurant area at lunch time.

I don't have an actual recipe, but they're easy to make.

The catfish is marinated in Cajun seasonings...many grocery stores carry the pre-marinated item. Grilled, the catfish is folded into soft flour tortillas with some chopped tomato and onion and some finely shredded cabbage. This is drizzled with the cilantro jalapeno cream which is basically cilantro pureed in sour cream, with minced pickled jalapenos to taste.

I am going to fool around with some seasonings and come up with a healthy 'white sauce' to try. I think Mexican crema was probably the base.

Rachelellen, the cilantro jalapeno cream sounds perfect. My cilantro is on its way out, since we had an unexpected heatwave, so I need to use some up this weekend. I add pickled jalapenos to many, many dishes. I also make alot of cajun seasoned foods~~ so this sounds delicious. The original spicy Fish Tacos I reproduced were served in the bar side of a restaurant.

Thanks everyone !

I like to make up some cole slaw dressing and add wasabi to it. I also like to use seared, rare tuna in mine. Not traditional but it's good.

If you go to foodgawker.com and search for fish tacos there are a number of recipes with white sauce.

It is actually mayonaise based with some acid added.

Oooh,Jimtex, that sounds tasty indeed! Of course, you must like wasabi to start with (I do), but it has never occurred to me to mix a bit of wasabi in with a mayonnaise based dressing, but I bet that would be great on a number of grilled meat or fish dishes!