Catch & Cook - Tips & Recipes

By Gary Brown

Over the years I have caught and eaten many a fish. Some have been excellent and others have tasted like an old boot. Not that I have eaten an old boot!

Depending on the type of fish, I have eaten them whole, filleted, thinly sliced and in chunks. They have been deep and shallow fried, baked, barbecued on an open grill, poached, cooked over an open fire, grilled, pickled, sashimi and raw.

Some are very sweet, while others have a very fishy smell and taste to them. A lot of how they taste comes down to how you look after them once you have caught them.

If you are going to keep a fish or two to eat, I would suggest that you humanly kill them as soon as you get them and that you then put them in iced water. This is a better option, rather than trying to keep them alive in a net that is hanging over the side of the boat or leaving them swimming around in a shallow pool on the rocks cooking as the water gets hotter and hotter.

You don't have to bleed all fish, however some keep and taste better when bled. These include trevally, luderick, Australian salmon, drummer, bonito and tailor, so ensure you do your research on the species if you are planning to keep it. Silver trevally are a very underrated fish when it comes to species suitable for eating and I believe this is mainly due to the way that anglers look after them when caught.

If you are going to eat a silver trevally you need to bleed it straight away. Let a lot of the blood drain out and then put the fish into salt water that has an ice slurry, or what I do is fill up a two litre milk bottle and freeze it a couple of days before the trip, adding the frozen bottle to the salt water and fish. You will find that when you put the bottle into salt water the temperature will drop about 4 to 5 degrees. This coolness will keep the fish in a firm state.

Now, I don't rate myself as a chef or a cook, however I do like to try out new recipes and sometimes I do get it right.

Here are a couple of recipes that you could try.

Recipe1 - Trevally / Bream / Snapper

Bleed, gill and gut the fish.

With a sharp knife cut two slices across the body of the fish, up near the thicker part. This is to be done on both sides.

Put a bit of sweet chili sauce into each cut.

Wrap the fish in foil and either cook on the BBQ or bake in the oven.

A fish of about 500 grams should take about 10 minutes to cook.

Recipe 2 - Trevally / Luderick / Drummer

Bleed the fish and put into an ice slurry for about an hour.

Then fillet and skin each side of the fish.

Cut out the rib cage bones, blood line and spine bones.

Prepare the boneless fillets in egg and bread crumbs.

Shallow fry in olive oil.

Serve with a nice salad and have a couple of dipping sauces.

Recipe 3 - Trevally / Bonito / Australian Salmon / Luderick Drummer

Bleed the fish and put into an ice slurry for about an hour.

Then fillet and skin each side of the fish.

Cut out the rib cage bones, blood line and spine bones.

Cut the boneless flesh into thin strips.

Marinate in lime juice, a touch of mirin and crushed coriander seeds for about 5 minutes.

Serve on a plate with dollops of Kewpie mayonnaise.

Recipe 4 - Bream / Snapper

Use a whole fish that has been scaled, gilled and gutted.

Cut two slots across the body of the fish.

Sprinkle oyster sauce and parsley onto the foil that has already been brushed with butter.

Lay fish down onto the foil, cut side down.

Repeat the process on the other side of the fish. Making sure that you also put the oyster sauce and parsley into the stomach area.

Seal up the foil.

Cook for around 10 minutes on the BBQ.

Serve with a Greek salad and dollops of Kewpie mayonnaise.

The next time that you are out fishing and you take a couple of fish home for a feed, remember to take the time to look after the fish and you will be pleasantly surprised how it tastes when utilising these or the many other recipes available for preparing fish.