Two ways with super-duper fresh fish

For St Valentine's Day, I bought The Lovely Man a fishing expedition, but let him choose the finer details. He missed out on this trip due to inclement weather. Thankfully second time lucky (and last trip of the season). He and a friend, along with a few others, both crew and fellow fishermen went out into Bass Strait.

This is a strait of water that divides mainland Australia (Victoria specifically) with Tasmania. It is notorious for it's horrible conditions, not for the faint-of-heart! In fact, I am assured by TLM that he will 'Never Again' be fishing out on Bass Strait. Spending a fair amount of time hanging over the edge of the boat. His body is full of bumps and bruises from getting knocked about (and it was considered only a little choppy that day), his legs from knee up are still a little wonky some days later. Sea legs? No sign of them!

Happily however, the fish were biting, with everyone coming home with a delicious fish or two. We were especially fortunate, as The Catch Of The Day was in our bag. A wonderful Snapper weighing in at 2.2kg or thereabouts was what TLM came home with, along with a 'plate size' snapper and the fillets of a gurnard - unsure of why this fish was filleted for us - too much fish for one sitting.

Here is the catch, complete with Tweetie ruler below, which is a standard 30cm ruler.

The first issue I, as the cook had, was what on earth would I cook that big fish in? I really wanted to keep it whole, as it was so spectacular, and of course, fish on the bone is that much sweeter. We ended up finding an aluminium tray suitable for barbecues which was still a little too small, but larger than anything I had in my collection.

I chose to cook the fish with Chinese flavours, but baked in the oven (no I don't have a big enough steamer). I was initially apprehensive about cooking such a big fish, but realised that really, the same rules apply, it just takes longer. Oh I SO wish I could give you a taste of this fish! My children were in raptures over this lovely fish, simply cooked, and the sauce that goes with. I love the Table Theatre of finishing the fish at the table by pouring over the hot peanut oil over the spring onions with a crackle, hiss, bang! This is the recipe I went with from Taste.com.

I had a different size fish so had to extend the cooking time, but I would easily cook a smaller fish for less time.

The option of having the ginger (and garlic for that matter) microplaned makes it much more tempting for children. At least my children are not so keen to eat a sliver of ginger, but enjoy the flavour when combined in the sauce.

Chinese-style snapper

1.8kg whole snapper, scaled, gutted
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
7.5cm-piece fresh ginger, peeled, finely shredded
60ml (1/4 cup) soy sauce
60ml (1/4 cup) chicken stock
2 tbs Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
3 tsp sesame oil
2 tbs peanut oil
6 spring onions, ends trimmed, cut into 10cm lengths, finely shredded*
1/2 cup fresh coriander leaves**

Preheat oven to 220°C. Line a roasting pan with foil, then with non-stick baking paper.

Wash the snapper under cold running water. Pat dry with paper towel inside and out. Cut 3 slashes, about 1cm deep, in the thickest part of snapper on both sides. Place in the lined pan.

Spread garlic and ginger over the snapper. Combine soy sauce, chicken stock, Chinese rice wine or dry sherry and sesame oil in a jug. Pour over the snapper. Cover the pan tightly with foil.

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until snapper flakes easily when tested with a fork. Transfer to a warmed heatproof platter, reserving juices.

Heat peanut oil in saucepan over medium heat until just smoking. Pour over snapper. Pour over the reserved juices. Top with spring onion and coriander to serve.

*I sliced my spring onions finer out of my own personal preference.
**I left the coriander out of this. While I love coriander, I just don't think it's needed here.

Serves 6

We had the fish with steamed Jasmin rice to soak up the juices, and might I add, the cheeks of the fish are just like the 'oysters' on a chicken. They are about the same size and texture, and are just as sweet - don't waste a thing. Photo finishes the blog....

The remaining fish. What to do? Well, the above recipe is awfully healthy isn't it? So I thought some crumbs and frying were in order. I filleted the smaller snapper, and that along with the fillets from the gurnard were sufficient to make Nigella Lawson's Nigella Express recipe Goujons of Sole with Dill Mayonnaise. Sadly for me, I still can't 'do' dill after I became ill around the same time as eating a meal that included dill, so settled for some Dutch mayo instead. The snapper and gurnard were fabulous in place of the sole.

Goujons of Sole with Dill Mayonnaise

2 snapper fillets and 2 gurnard fillets
70 g Cornflour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
100 g fresh breadcrumbs or Japanese panko breadcrumbs
2 Free Range Eggs
250 ml groundnut oil or grapeseed oil, as needed, depending on the size of pan

For the goujons, cut the fillets into finger-width pieces.

Place the cornflour into a shallow bowl and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the breadcrumbs or panko into another shallow bowl, and beat the eggs together in a third bowl.

Dip each fish goujon first into the seasoned cornflour, coating it well, then into the beaten egg and finally the breadcrumbs.

Lay the goujons on a cooling rack (or at this point you can freeze them between layers of baking paper in an airtight container, which I did, though I cooked them the same night.).

Place the vegetable oil into a deep, heavy-based saucepan and heat until a small cube of bread sizzles and turns golden when dropped into it.

Carefully place the goujons into the hot oil and deep fry for about two minutes, or until crisp and golden-brown. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

Serves 3 - 5

Here are our goujons, I am always rather pigeon-chested when I fillet a fish if there is not a single bone served up. So very crispy!



He's very proud of the fish he caught, and I am very proud of the fish I cooked, we be just proud as punch all around! That's my largest platter and even with the tail cut off, the fish is too big. WOW.