YFT for fish tacos?

[Bill B]

Is yellowfin tuna any good for fish tacos?  Ummmm, asking for a friend 😎. Bill

[Hardy Boy]

I put mine in a taco shell made of sushi rice. I'm sure you could just don't over cook it.


Cheers:

Todd

[MarkT]

Yellowtail make good tacos! I kinda doubt a tuna taco would be a winner.

[Crab Pot]

I'm of the opinion any saltwater fish is great for taco's if you don't over cook it.

And if you should over cook it that's when your favorite taco sauce comes into play. 

Don't sleep on Halibut, Ling, or Vermilion/Olvie Rock Cod taco's either! 

[steelfish]

Is yellowfin tuna any good for fish tacos?  Ummmm, asking for a friend 😎. Bill

well, you have Fish Tacos and also you have Fish Tacos Baja style (google it) you can also find it as "fish tacos Ensenada Style)

I think fresh schoolie size of YFT can deliver good fish tacos because the meat is pretty similar to a YT (which is excellent meat for fish tacos Baja Style)
on a big size caw YFT the meat tend to become shredded (as tuna can meat) with a bit of heat, I not totally positive on this but I have had some loins of big YFT and is not good recipe to overcooked it, while the meat on a schoolie size one remains in one piece just as a YT meat.

[Squidder Bidder]

I've had raw or quickly seared and sliced tuna in a street taco. A Chipotle crema and thin cabbage slaw with a wedge of lime works. Maybe some diced jalapenos and white onion with cilantro on top for garnish.

[MarkT]

Is yellowfin tuna any good for fish tacos?  Ummmm, asking for a friend 😎. Bill

well, you have Fish Tacos and also you have Fish Tacos Baja style (google it) you can also find it as "fish tacos Ensenada Style)

I think fresh schoolie size of YFT can deliver good fish tacos because the meat is pretty similar to a YT (which is excellent meat for fish tacos Baja Style)
on a big size caw YFT the meat tend to become shredded (as tuna can meat) with a bit of heat, I not totally positive on this but I have had some loins of big YFT and is not good recipe to overcooked it, while the meat on a schoolie size one remains in one piece just as a YT meat.

Is there any other kind of fish taco worthy of the name? I've seen them with flour tortillas and lettuce... which is just wrong!

YT, dorado, rockfish, halibut, sheepshead all make for good fish tacos!

[Bill B]

Is yellowfin tuna any good for fish tacos?  Ummmm, asking for a friend 😎. Bill

well, you have Fish Tacos and also you have Fish Tacos Baja style (google it) you can also find it as "fish tacos Ensenada Style)

I think fresh schoolie size of YFT can deliver good fish tacos because the meat is pretty similar to a YT (which is excellent meat for fish tacos Baja Style)
on a big size caw YFT the meat tend to become shredded (as tuna can meat) with a bit of heat, I not totally positive on this but I have had some loins of big YFT and is not good recipe to overcooked it, while the meat on a schoolie size one remains in one piece just as a YT meat.

Thanks Alex, right now I'm just baking my fish, then adding a sour cream/mayo sauce with pico da gallo, shredded cabbage and corn tortillas.  I will be trying the Ensenada tacos pretty soon too!

[Shellbelly]

Toss a tablespoon of corn on that taco, guys.  Stir fry in a buttered skillet with a little cumin.  Even better when cut straight from the cob.

[steelfish]

Is there any other kind of fish taco worthy of the name? I've seen them with flour tortillas and lettuce... which is just wrong!

LOL I know what you mean about any other kind fish taco worthy of the name !  a lot of local restaurants want to invet the Wheel on fish tacos and just made an abomination of fish taco,.........luttuce? yiack ! no-no

fluor tortillas hmm not that wrong, half population from Sonora and Baja (both states) tend to prefer flour tortillas over Corn tortillas, Im one of those        but still some food NEED to be prepared or eat with Corn tortillas.

@Bill, Baja Style is not other than Battered fish over a soft Corn tortilla, shredded cabbage, sour cream, pico de gallo sauce, "salsa roja" (mexican spicy hot sauce) and plenty of Guacamole, it might have other variations but thats the basic of a Baja Style fish taco. (if its not battered, if it has cheese, etc it not a Baja Taco fish)

[jurelometer]

There is also an excellent machaca style preparation that they do in Mexico .  Not sure if it there is  a Baja specific variant.  It is often made in Baja with striped bonito, but any tuna, yellowtail, dorado, or similar will work fine. I watched a local lady prepare some with black skipjack (blech), but it actually came out pretty tasty.  It looks more like beef machaca than USA-style tuna fish salad if prepared correctly. I make a fake fish machaca  if I have leftover fish of the right species. I would like to learn a bit more about the correct method.

I think that fish machaca is best served with something crispy, like on a tostada.

Hopefully Alex can chime in with some local wisdom.

-J

[steelfish]

Hopefully Alex can chime in with some local wisdom.

-J

ooh-boy, dont star with fish machaca, I prefer it over Beef machaca  (I dont know if USA has a machaca dish aquivalent)
my favorite is stingray / skate /eagle ray machaca, because of the type of meat you can prepared the dish and it will look pretty similar to Beef, I dont feel like typing the recipe but the next time I prepare Stingray machaca will take pictures.
you will get the basic idea by the next pictures, check them out

PS: to prepare machaca as Dave (J) said, you have to cook the fish first (any fish with firm meat can be use it, marlin, bonito, tuna, YT, etc), the meat of the fish can/could be fried, cook on water, steamed, etc, and let it cool I mean COOL even put it on the fridge for few hours, later you have to shredded it with your hands, if the meat is still kind of soft you can pass it on a hot pan wit just a tad of oil to make the meat firmer and dried and that will be you meat ready for the machaca dish, oh yes, you still have to know how to prepare the Machaca dish (google stingray machaca)

stingray machaca is regularly (but not always) used for a big family gathering and prepared on a big outdoor frying pan (disco) with direct flames from wood or gas

[jurelometer]

Thanks Alex!  I knew I could count on you.  Your style looks tasty.

The stuff I have eaten looks like this (made from smoked marlin in this recipe):



recipe:  https://cookpad-com.translate.goog/mx/recetas/8263173-machaca-de-marlin?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

The time I saw it made with bonito, it was poached quickly in a bit of water with an onion and some herbs (not sure what- but I see bay laurel leaf in a lot of recipes).  Fully cooled, like you said, then shredded with forks to get nice long stringy threads.

Fry up onions, garlic, chiles, a little tomato, oil and a touch of butter.  Blender or molcajete to grind up the veggie portion.  Kind of oily out of the pan, but it gets absorbed and moistens the shredded fish without making a sauce, so you can eat as is, or serve with a pico de gallo and/or other preferred sauce.

This is how I base my version.  I am a sucker for lots  of black pepper with tuna, but I don't know of that is traditionally used in fish machaca.
 
-J

[Crab Pot]

my favorite is stingray / skate /eagle ray machaca, because of the type of meat you can prepared the dish and it will look pretty similar to Beef.

Alijandro,

We catch a lot of the above, well I don't know what a Ray Machaca is, while Halibut fishing up here.

Kind of like riding a Moped, fun till your friends see you, fun to fight till you see what they are.

How do you clean a skate/ray for table fare?

Steve

[Shellbelly]

I've never eaten rays...that I know of.  I've been fed a lot of things called, "don't ask, just eat it".  I would be willing to try it if I knew how to deal with it and what species/size to keep.  It's not something I'd just throw in the cooler and experiment with.