Baja-Style Fried Shrimp Tacos

These fantastic tacos are a shrimp version of the ever-popular fried fish tacos. The recipe comes to us from Jorge Fritz and Beto Estúa, proprietors of Casa Jacaranda cooking school in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The shrimp, with their briny-sweet flavor and pleasing plumpness, are particularly delicious thanks to the beer-batter coating that fries up airy and crisp. We like to use a Mexican lager to make the batter, but any light, quaffable brew will do. When measuring the beer, allow the head to settle before gauging the volume, and don’t polish off the rest of the bottle because you may need a little more to thin the batter if the consistency becomes too thick after the first batch of shrimp are coated. Fritz and Estúa offer three sauces for dressing the tacos: a creamy chipotle mayonnaise; a fresh, bright pico de gallo; and a red salsa with chili heat and notes of char. Each one brings a unique flavor to the tacos and, for convenience, can be made in advance. Six-inch flour tortillas are ideal here, but if 8-inchers are the only size available, they work perfectly well, too.