Is yellowfin tuna any good for fish tacos? Ummmm, asking for a friend 😎. Bill
I put mine in a taco shell made of sushi rice. I'm sure you could just don't over cook it.
Cheers:
Todd
Yellowtail make good tacos! I kinda doubt a tuna taco would be a winner.
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. 8)
Don't sleep on Halibut, Ling, or Vermilion/Olvie Rock Cod taco's either!
Quote from: Bill B on November 01, 2023, 08:25:41 PMIs 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.
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.
Quote from: steelfish on November 02, 2023, 01:38:36 AMQuote from: Bill B on November 01, 2023, 08:25:41 PMIs 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!
Quote from: steelfish on November 02, 2023, 01:38:36 AMQuote from: Bill B on November 01, 2023, 08:25:41 PMIs 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!
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.
Quote from: MarkT on November 02, 2023, 02:59:30 AMIs 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)
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
Quote from: jurelometer on November 02, 2023, 04:54:10 PMHopefully 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
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):
(https://img-global.cpcdn.com/recipes/4b1bff0415e75a7c/1360x964cq70/machaca-de-marlin-foto-principal.webp)
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 (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
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
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.
I have heard tell of ray being "cookie-cuttered" and sold as scallops, but not sure if that is "old wives tale" or reality.
Skate needs to be processes and handled correctly form catch to to kitchen, and it doesn't hold for long, but the taste is distinct, often compared to scallop - that is where the story comes from. But fake/skate scallops are probably just a rumor, as the texture is too different, and the effort to make and short shelf-life of the fake scallopss would not be worth it.
Skate tastes like something between shellfish and shark to me, with an interesting texture (perfect for machaca). There are classic skate dishes in several cultures, some of which are considered high cuisine. Lots of skate species, so some are probably better than others.
Although I think it is illegal now, mobula (a smaller cousin to the manta) is fished commercially and dried to make machaca in Baja. I have seen stacks of carcasses on a couple of the more remote islands in the sea of Cortez.
And then there are the more common stingray species that Alex mentioned.
Only tried skate myself. It was good, but not my favorite. I usually avoid the shark/ray species, mostly for conservation reasons, but not being a full fledged fan of the taste makes it easier.
-J
Quote from: Crab Pot on November 02, 2023, 11:59:28 PMmy 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
I really dont know which type of ray or manta is the "best" for machaca dish either LOL, in this part of baja I have heard people use Diamond stingray and Bat ray for table fare, the to clean them is kind of hard to explan but its "kinda" similar to cleaning a Halibut, were you cut the fish into to get 4 big fillets, 2 from upper side the another 2 from the bottom side, but better check a youtube video on how to fillet a batray
compadre Bill,
YFT get my approval to make nice Baja Style fish tacos (if thats worth anything ::) )
I happen to have some fillets from schooli YFT that were sent directly from "La Bocana" Baja Sur (few hours south of Guerrero Negro) from a good friend.
As I told you in my previous comment, the meat feels really firm pretty similar to a YT meat.
yesterday it was like any given Sunday and my wife told me that she would like to use some of the YFT to make fish tacos, I told them excellent idea but let me document the process for a Friend.
Im not going to put the whole recipe because its pretty basic, just battered fish with your personal condiment touch but use Beer instead of water or milk to prepare the batter mix for a crispy crunch.
pictures are not to win a showing-off contest because it was just a lazy meal to keep watching movies on a lazy sunday but you will get the idea.
clean loins of YFT
(https://alantani.com/gallery/38/3592-061123202737-383972474.jpeg)
small chunks but not too thin
(https://alantani.com/gallery/38/3592-061123202726-38390271.jpeg)
you will get something like this
(https://alantani.com/gallery/38/3592-061123202731-3839384.jpeg)
you can perform quality control with some just made Guacamole, only avocado mildly smashed
(https://alantani.com/gallery/38/3592-061123202729-38392805.jpeg)
(https://alantani.com/gallery/38/3592-061123203954-38399589.jpeg)
yep, they're good to go !
(https://alantani.com/gallery/38/3592-061123202733-38395213.jpeg)
let make the rest of the fish
(https://alantani.com/gallery/38/3592-061123202735-383962470.jpeg)
basic ingredients, lettuce, pico de gallo sauce, lemons, guacamole and sour creame not in the pic
(https://alantani.com/gallery/38/3592-061123204731-38400453.jpeg)
since Im from the North of Mexico I prefer flour tortillas :P but of course you can use Corn tortillas which BTW I used for the second round of tacos 8), my tortillas look ugly because I like to heat them on direct flame until have them "kin of" burned which make it to have soft and crunchy zones (yeah I know, Im picky with my food), normal people use a comal (pan) to just warm the tortillas until have them soft.
(https://alantani.com/gallery/38/3592-061123202737-383971280.jpeg)
on the Baja restaurants when ordering Fish tacos additional with those ingredients on my pic, you will get catsup, mustard, mayo and different kind of hot sauces as option for the fish taco, depending on the 1st bite I can add a bit of mustard or not.
PS: after 6 fish tacos you in order to keep you healthy, you can continue without tortillas and eat the fish as finger food with the rest of Guacamole and sour cream and finish with a big Ice Cream dessert, yep, thats the correct recipe. ^-^ :d >:D
Now I'm hungry Alijandro!
Darn Alex that looks great. I did make yft tacos today, shredded pan fried the fish with a generous amount of Tony Chacheri Cajun seasoning, sour cream/mayo sauce, sliced radishes, homemade Pico de Gallo, cilantro, red cabbage, and a splash of lime. Corn tortillas to wrap it all up. I would have taken pictures but the family beat me to it. Everyone was really happy with the yft. Next up will be the Baja style. Bill