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Fish recipes

I had a friend who used to give me the occasional conger. I used to cook it, take the easy meat off it, give a bit of the rest to the cat, a few good meals to the J. Russells (which loved it), and the bones etc to the hens. I had two 20 y. o. lodgers at the time, one who was fussy (his parents had a F&C shop in Bridlington) and the other who would have eaten me had I stayed still long enough. I made pies with Alaskan pollock, whiting and conger and both ate them and thoroughly enjoyed them. I made Robin, the non fussy one promise he wouldn't tell the other one what was in them.
 
Phil Pascoe said:
I had a friend who used to give me the occasional conger. I used to cook it, take the easy meat off it, give a bit of the rest to the cat, a few good meals to the J. Russells (which loved it), and the bones etc to the hens. I had two 20 y. o. lodgers at the time, one who was fussy (his parents had a F&C shop in Bridlington) and the other who would have eaten me had I stayed still long enough. I made pies with Alaskan pollock, whiting and conger and both ate them and thoroughly enjoyed them. I made Robin, the non fussy one promise he wouldn't tell the other one what was in them.
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Plenty of conger in the wrecks off Plymouth. I used to cut them into steaks, then the wife would steam them in a bowl, with chilli, ginger, spring onion, coriander, soy sauce.

I wish I’d filmed the time someone let loose a bloody great conger on the deck. Comedy gold - everyone legging it, then prat-falling and grabbing the gunnels. The conger was actually barking at us.
 
In the far distant past, single and had to feed myself, I would do some steamed hake.

Deep Pyrex dish with lid.

Take a nice sized onion and slice thinly, layering half at the bottom of the Pyrex.

Some blobs of butter.

Sprinkle black pepper, and Origanum or Thyme (fresh is ideal) over the onion.

Lay the pieces of hake onto this ‘bed’. Enough for two meals.

Spread other half of onion over.

Slice a tomato over, sprinkle more of the pepper and Origanum/Thyme over.

If on hand some parmesan on top.

Place lid on.

Into pre-heated oven at 180c for about 20 minutes.

Goes well with cold dry white wine. :cool:
In those days it would have been Witzenberg or Carafino.
 
Ling in Mornay sauce was quite nice (think cauliflower cheese, but with ling instead). The fish made it a little watery so next time I’ll salt it. 20 mins in coarse salt, then rinse off?
 
I've spent most of the last week fishing in Guernsey and haven't caught a single fish worth eating!

I was mostly lure fishing for bass, but just caught a few wrasse which, although great fun to catch, are not a desirable eating fish (although I've heard they are worth cooking up if they're really big).

The only "edible" fish I caught was a mackerel but, as I only had one which wasn't enough to feed me and my parents, I used that as bait which netted me a ..... dogfish.

The mission was not helped by my defender breaking down on my way to catch the ferry for a day's fishing in Herm. Hats off to the AA though,who are repatriating the stricken vehicle back to the mainland for me!

The same week in May last year was also very poor for bass. I'll be back in August and October and will hopefully have more luck then.

In the meantime, I've had to make do with eating bass and bream in local restaurants which has been excellent!!
 
"Not too bad" does not sell anything to me! Even Rick Stein reckons that dogfish needs to be disguised with a lot of other stuff to hide its rather insistent flavour.
 
I think dogfish are in the "pot bait" category here. Sadly, I think wrasse are in the same category, but they're beautiful fish and should be released I think. This was probably the best one I caught:

IMG_3864.jpeg

The big fishing topic here is the impact on commercial crab and lobster fishing of the explosion in the octopus population. They go from pot to pot and devour the whole catch. Apparently it was like that a long time ago, but a very cold winter in the 1960s reduced the numbers. They're making a big comeback. We'll all need to start eating octopus...
 
I like octopus. They are very intelligent creatures though.
 
Had octopus tentacles for the first time a month or so back, grilled I think . Tasted much like calamari to me. I'd certainly eat it again.
 
AJB Temple said:
"Not too bad" does not sell anything to me! Even Rick Stein reckons that dogfish needs to be disguised with a lot of other stuff to hide its rather insistent flavour.
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Just being honest! I don’t remember a particularly strong flavour, just a softish texture. The book, North Atlantic Seafood, recommended by Phil Pascoe, describes it as ‘satisfactory material for the fryer’. Not everyone’s first choice, but if you can’t catch anything else, do try it as battered goujons with some tartare sauce. Even the “I don’t like fish” person seemed to enjoy it.

Up here, dogfish is sometimes sold as Rock Salmon, which can refer to the Lesser Spotted doggy, Bull Huss, Smoothhound or Spurdog, so it’s anyone guess what you’re getting. But it does, at least, suggest a waste-not want-not approach, which is good.

@NickM nice Ballan Wrasse - the book is a bit ambivalent about them, but suggests steaming or poaching, or Vras a la Cherbourgeoise. Maybe if one comes up damaged or foul-hooked you could try that.
 
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AJB Temple said:
Lesser spotted is now regarded as endangered.
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Where is that from? In inshore waters, they seem to be extremely (annoyingly) numerous. As far as I can find out, the concern is not so much for numbers, but the lack of any management/quota/landing size measures, given their low economic value.

One thing in their favour is, they seem to be very resilient to being hauled up and thrown back.
 
Guineafowl21 said:
Where is that from? In inshore waters, they seem to be extremely (annoyingly) numerous. As far as I can find out, the concern is not so much for numbers, but the lack of any management/quota/landing size measures, given their low economic value.

One thing in their favour is, they seem to be very resilient to being hauled up and thrown back.
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Marine Stewardship body. Our fish wholesaler has a full list that they hand out to customers which also gives the seasonality info for every species we typically encounter in the UK. I think the issue is they are bottom feeders and there is not much information on the population. They are not found everywhere around the UK coast apparently.
 
AJB Temple said:
Marine Stewardship body. Our fish wholesaler has a full list that they hand out to customers which also gives the seasonality info for every species we typically encounter in the UK. I think the issue is they are bottom feeders and there is not much information on the population. They are not found everywhere around the UK coast apparently.
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Yes, it looks like they’d be vulnerable to overfishing if popularised, due to lack of info and measures. Sharks are apparently slow to mature and breed as well.
 
When I lived on the Hampshire coast, our neighbour often caught mackerel off the beach. Once you've had that simply grilled and simply seasoned within an hour of being caught you really cannot imagine better!
 
Raymedullary said:
When I lived on the Hampshire coast, our neighbour often caught mackerel off the beach. Once you've had that simply grilled and simply seasoned within an hour of being caught you really cannot imagine better!
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Mackerel fresh from the sea and straight onto the grill - best fish ever.

Kept for any length of time, or frozen - I use it for bait.
 
We used catch mackerel on the boat, boil them in seawater and eat them with new potatoes and butter. Eaten within 15 minutes of being out of the water.
 
Super fresh mackerel is very good as sashimi. But being oily it's quite rich and I only ever want a small amount. Not sure that there is any such thing as "best fish ever" :). Variety is the spice of life. But if I were to be condemned to a desert island, with no women or chocolate to keep them happy, I would probably select Dover sole as my fish of choice, or Turbot at a pinch, or Lobster. A good supply of Oscietra or Beluga would help make up for the lack of companionship.
 
AJB Temple said:
Not sure that there is any such thing as "best fish ever" :).
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You weren’t out on the rocks at Portsoy, with beer cooler and mates, barbecuing the fish as we reeled them in, sharing a laugh (and a few line tangles) with the jolly Polish boys who’d come out to do the same!
 
Phil Pascoe said:
Snorkeling for mussels off Hot Water Beach in NZ, burying them on the beach and digging them up cooked ten minutes later.
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Did they open in the sand? How did you get the grit out? Or were they wrapped somehow?
 
Guineafowl21 said:
You weren’t out on the rocks at Portsoy, with beer cooler and mates, barbecuing the fish as we reeled them in, sharing a laugh (and a few line tangles) with the jolly Polish boys who’d come out to do the same!
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Why did you need a beer cooler - whenever I go to Scotland it's always freezing :)
 
AJB Temple said:
Why did you need a beer cooler - whenever I go to Scotland it's always freezing :)
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Moray microclimate! I’m framing up a stud wall to extend the wood shop, and it’s bloody boiling here. Going for a shandy now.

* When I say beer cooler, I mean the fish bucket filled with ice and seawater.
 
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