Smoked Yellowtail

[steveooo]

Smoked Yellowtail

I love fresh yellowtail. I eat it by the pound when it is raw and fresh. I like fresh sashimi, sushi rolls, caveman style with just soy sauce, in ceviche, and I like it when it is fresh off the grill.


Here are a few examples of some fresh YT dishes. Pardon my lack of presentation, I’m a foodie, but not an artist. Trust me- It all tasted delicious.



Yellowtail Ceviche



Hungry Yet?




Yellowtail Rolls



Yellowtail Kama



Caveman Style Yellowtail (my favorite)



Blackened Yellowtail



Yellowtail Stir-fry



Impromptu Yellowtail Appetizer



Yellowtail Kabobs



Yellowtail Ranchero (Another Favorite)




One thing I do not like very much is frozen Yellowtail. Even with great care taken in the freezing process, I do not feel that yellowtail is a fish that freezes very well. Both the taste and the texture are affected so much that I wont even touch the frozen stuff. Usually I’ll just catch my one, eat what I can while its fresh, and give away what I can’t consume in a week. Part of the excitement of YT fishing for me, is knowing that I don’t have any in the freezer, and that if I get lucky, I get to eat fresh yellowtail. No me gusta the frozen stuff.


That brings me to this post. Last week I was fortunate enough to stumble across a couple decent Yellowtail. I ate what I could, gave away what I could, but was left with still a good amount of fish. Doing some research online, I’ve found people with the same snobbish attitude toward frozen YT as me. After digging around a bit more I found many of those people suggested smoking a YT is a good way to take care of it, because the smoked YT freezes well without changing the texture or taste.


My interest was peaked enough that I decided to give it a try.

Here is the recipe I used to brine the fish.

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

I let the fish soak in the brine for about 20 hours.

Here is what the fish looked like after I took it out of the brine. I let it air dry for about an hour, so the fish could form the “pellicle”.





Next stop was the smoker. I smoked the fish using an Apple Wood for about 2 hours at 190 degrees. The thicker stuff took about 2.5 hours.

Here is the last pic I took, right before I took it off. It has a nice golden brown color.



I let it all cool down, while snacking on it. It was very tasty just by itself. I whipped up an impromptu dip with some cream cheese and put it on a bagel. No pics because it was gone in about 2 seconds. Man that was soooo friggen tasty!

I ended up with about 15 packs of the smoked fish that were all about this size.



I gave away a few packs, froze a few packs, and made a different dip from a recipe I found online as well. I swear the smoked YT dip was like crack. It was insanely good.

Here is the recipe I used


Smoked Fish Dip

• 1 ½ cups crumbled smoked fish
• 1/2 cup milk
• 8 ounces light cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup finely minced onion
• 1 stalk finely chopped celery
• 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh parsley
• 3 teaspoons sweet pickle relish
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (or to taste)
• Cayenne, salt and pepper to taste

Put the smoked fish in a medium bowl and add the milk. Cover and chill for 30 minutes to an hour. Stir in the cream cheese, onion, celery, parsley, relish, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and cayenne, salt and pepper to taste. Cover and chill for 2 to 3 hours until flavors have blended. Serve with your favorite crackers.


Here is a pic of the last bite. It tasted so good that I almost forgot to take pics.






I’m going to keep trying a few different recipes with the smoked YT because this stuff is so good. Just for kicks I defrosted a frozen pack to eat and couldn’t taste a difference between it and the stuff right off the smoker. I feel jipped that I’ve been giving away yellowtail for so many years.


Get off the couch, go fishing, head to the kitchen and have fun. Trust me. Try it. Its good.
Steve