Cheesy Fish Quesadillas And A New Dock Ladder

I had been ordering fish from two different Alaskan seafood stores to see which I preferred and one of them kept sending cubed pollock which I had little use for (I would have liked filets but assume they all went to Long John Silvers and these were the leftovers) so I went with the other supplier, but I still had the pollock in the freezer.  

In considering ways to use it, one that popped into my head was tacos then I thought why non quesadillas, which I prefer, so a plan was born - the idea didn’t appeal to Bev so I ended up making her tacos like we’ve made it the past.  I consider a quesadilla as just a big soft taco but Bev was unconvinced so she got corn tortillas.  I used the sauce and batter recipes from earlier fish tacos but only made half of the batter recipe shown below and made it thinner than normal for a lighter coating.

Seafood Quesadillas

Ingredients:

8 or 10” flour tortillas

18 oz. of pollack cubes - more than enough for 2 quesadillas and a couple of tacos

12 slices of D&W creamy sharp cheddar cheese – our favorite deli cheese (See Note)

Shredded cabbage

Fish Sauce - below

Fish breading - below

Bev’s pico de gallo – tomato, cucumber, onion, lime juice

Note: Dietz & Watson C-Sharp Creamy Cheddar Cheese is made by combining milk, cultures, salt, and enzymes to create aged cheddar cheese, which is then blended with sodium phosphate to achieve its "creamy" texture.  (We did a taste test and it's actually similar but a little better than white American cheese).

Directions:

Dry the fish on a rack in the fridge then season with S&P.

Pour the oil into a deep, wide pan to a depth of 2 inches and heat to 350 degrees.

Dip the fish in the batter, allow excess to run off, and using a wire basket, put it into the oil.

Cook until golden brown, flipping as needed. Just a couple of minutes per side were sufficient.

Remove the fish to a rack to drain.

Spread the flour tortillas with sauce and add to a buttered griddle or frying pan.

Add cheese to entire tortilla and spread it with the sauce, cover with a lid.

When tortilla is golden brown and cheese is melted, add fried fish to half the tortilla and fold in half.

Plate and top with pico di gallo.

Rather than cut into wedges and eat it like pizza, I did it as the Italians do pizza -don’t slice it and eat with a knife and fork.

Fish Taco Sauce From Vickie

Ingredients:

½ cup sour cream

½ cup mayonnaise

1 lime, juiced (2 tbsp)

½ jalapeno pepper, minced

1 tsp. minced capers

½ tsp. dried Mexican oregano

½ tsp. ground cumin

½ tsp. dried dill weed

1 tsp. ground cayenne pepper

Directions:

Mix everything together and refrigerate for a few hours for flavors to marry.

Fish Tacos Breading – Adapted from Food.com

Ingredients:

1 cup self-rising flour

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon dry mustard

¼ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, rubbed to a powder

6 oz cold beer, more or less for desired batter thickness

Directions:

Whisk the flour, baking powder, garlic, cayenne, mustard, and oregano until well blended. Stir in the beer until there are no lumps. (Batter may be made several hours ahead and refrigerated).

The Verdict:

 All ingredients of the quesadillas were delicious and a great way to use the pollock pieces but I think cheese on just one half would have been enough as, hard as it is for me to say these words, they were too cheesy.

A New Dock Ladder

Our old four-step dock ladder worked okay for young, thin folks but since most of us are no longer either of those, it was time for an upgrade.  Thanks to friend, Steve, we discovered several of these ladders made by Wet Step, actually located in our cove.

They are welded aluminum making them last virtually forever and much lighter than steel or wood and I love that they are slanted and have wider deeper treads and a handrail.  They are available in four, five and six step versions and I went with the six-step version.  They come in bare aluminum or they can be powder coated in a variety of colors and like the others in our cove, we opted for Tennessee Orange.

So we called up the local dealer and ordered the one we wanted and much to our pleasure, he also installs them which he did on 9/24, just in time for a last swim for Eliza and her dad, who said the water was beyond refreshing.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

9/24 & 9/25/25 event date