Corey Miller
Dredge - Fish Tacos
If ever a restaurant epitomized the boat-to-table concept, it’s Dredge in Irvington, with a menu focused on the bounty of the sea. Regular customers are discovering the restaurant’s additional focus on farm to table.
Last year, owner Bryan Byrd began sourcing beef and pork from Black Sheep Farm in Lively, which is owned by his sister and brother-in-law. He appreciates that everything’s organic and he knows the source. “I also get first dibs on their vegetables before they sell to the public,” Byrd says, recalling the abundance of tomatoes, cucumbers and squash he got last year. “With the cows, I know everything they ate and drank on the farm. That’s important because so many people today want to know where their food is coming from.”
“Our menu is less broad because of supply issues and certain things no longer being available,” he says. “So, we focus on what we have fresh daily.” Last summer, he spent five days picking blackberries, which showed up on the menu as blackberry mojitos, blackberry cheesecake, blackberry sauces and blackberry martinis.
Anticipating the bounty that comes with warmer weather, Byrd marks the change of seasons by when crab pots hit the water for the first time in 2021. “Come May, I’ll start getting live softshells and I always grab what I can,” he says of the popular seasonal delicacy. “It’s not long after that when the great produce starts rolling in.”
Original Recipe
Dredge Fish Tacos
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. of fresh-caught fish filet
- 8 oz. of shredded red cabbage
- 4 Roma tomatoes
- ¼ cup red onion
- 1 Tbsp. fresh cilantro
- ½ Tbsp. chili powder
- ¼ cup of fresh lime juice
- 2 cups of white vinegar
- salt and pepper
- tartar sauce (½ cup mayo, ¼ cup lime juice, ¼ cup pureed sweet relish, salt and pepper to taste)
- flour tortillas (taco size)
Directions:
Step 1: In a small mixing bowl, add red cabbage and vinegar with a dash of salt and pepper. Cover and keep cool in fridge.
Step 2: For pico de gallo, dice tomatoes, red onion and cilantro, and add to mixing bowl. Mix in lime juice, chili powder, salt and pepper to taste. Cover and keep cool in fridge.
Step 3: Clean and cut fish into four 4-oz. portion sizes for each taco, then cook the fish however you like (we recommend grilled, blackened or fried). After fish is cooked thoroughly, set to side on a paper towel to drain off any grease.
Step 4: Strain pickled cabbage from any excess vinegar so it won’t make the taco soggy. Layer each tortilla with fish, and top with a little bit of pickled cabbage, pico de gallo and tartar sauce.
4357 Irvington Road, Irvington