November 2021 Food Champions Challenge: What is your favourite Fish Dish and Why?

This brings back memories of family holidays to Sydney and visits to Doyle’s for excellent fish dishes.

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My motto has always been ‘sea food and eat it….’.

HOWEVER there is a caveat. I won’t eat unless sustainable. I also try to eat farmed as I sometimes feel it’s better than depleting wild stocks. I try to avoid imported such as barramundi from Vietnam for example. There’s barramundi from humpty Doo. Also must have skin on. Smoked Trout from snowy river :drooling_face::drooling_face::drooling_face::drooling_face: I even love tinned fish but very particular about the type. I’m careful and very cognisant of sustainability. It takes a significant amount of willpower to turn down good quality tinned tuna and salmon. There’s some divine quality tuna from Costco but I don’t know anything about the origin of it. I’ve had it before, soooo good. I usually stick to (sustainable) kippers or sardines unless I’m sure. I’d eat fish every day 3 meals a day if I could farm it at home!!! I likely keep the Australian local seafood farms in business. I’m sure I was a top deep sea predator in a previous life!!! I also love fresh the sea salty taste and have no issues with sushi and sashimi of any kind. But once again… sustainability….

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One has to remember that there are wild caught fish and farmed fish. The sustainability of fishing/farming practices vary widely between fisheries/countries and while some are sustainable, others are far from being such.

There are a number of websites that provide information on the sustainability/environmental impact of different harvested fish (wild or farm) if one searches ‘sustainability seafood guide’. It is worth looking at information from reputable, independent sources if one is assessing the impacts of the foods they eat.

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My favourite fish dish would have to have been fish mornay which I have not had since I lived at home some 50 years ago.

My mother used to buy reef fish frames and wings, boill them, and then carefully remove the flesh to make it replete with a golden cheese and breadcrumb topping.

I have not tried cooking it myself as my wife does not want to try it as she is convinced that she won’t like it.

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Hot chips with vinegar and crispy fish cakes or plain battered fish and fresh lemon or lime wedges ….all wrapped in crispy clean squeaky butchers paper and cardboard tray. :drooling_face::drooling_face::drooling_face::drooling_face::drooling_face::drooling_face::drooling_face::heart::heart::heart::heart:

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Yep. It’s my go to when buying any seafood.

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I also use this guide as an app on my phone. Agree there are too many of us eating seafood. I’d give someone a Nobel prize for finding a solution.

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Too far north, I was south Yorkshire, West Riding. Yorkshire is a very large county with many regional variations. For instance, the chip butty never made it in my part of Yorkshire. A great favourite over the border in the county that can’t play cricket!

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:rofl: I often wondered why I lacked any talent in that department.

Some years ago when I visited the largest wholesale fish market in the world: Toyosu, in Tokyo, I thought it was an amazing place, and what was most surprising to me was the absence of even the slightest smell I associate with fish markets :laughing:

I also attended a sushi making class, and we were given slices of salmon to work with and the place was spotless and so fresh smelling!

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I’ll go with a basic tamarind + tomato curry with firm white fish chunks (no coconut milk), with a generous handful of fried curry leaf sprigs and sliced fresh green chilli for garnish, on steamed basmati rice (which is allowed to have the coconut bit, I just don’t like it diluting the tangy sour curry gravy :wink: )

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You forgot fresh natural Oysters :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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I adore seafood. I’m hosting our big family christmas for the first time and have been enjoying my practice dishes I’ve been doing these past weekends: whole salmon on the charcoal, whole salmon in the oven, gin cured salmon in the fridge… and fresh oysters natural to whet the appetite! Next weekend is the prawn practice dishes :hugs: I never bother ordering seafood from restaurants unless its a speciality, everything comes out smothered or fried. I feel deeply that deep frying seafood is an absolute waste of the beautiful delicate flesh (and an obvious disguise for non-fresh seafood!)

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The owner of the former best restaurant in Cairns in the 1980’s which was famous for its seafood told a person I know regarding how they served Morteon Bay Bugs.

When they were very fresh, they served them au naturale.

When they were not so fresh, they served them in a light curry cream sauce.

Caveat emptor.

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Yum and double yum.
I’d add deep fried soft shell crab with, name a spicy sauce …. (Ginger and ponzu?) if the topic is broadened.

But are oysters and considering @Fred123 reference to bugs really fish?

Being low on the food chain leads to just about everything else out there making a tasty meal of you. Apologies to all who have a seafood allergy.

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:laughing::laughing:

My beloved husband used to cook croquettes very similar to yours: we called them Pish Fatties. [grin]

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This is the nicest cold smoked salmon I have ever tasted and it is stocked at only one of our 3 nearby Coles.

Last Friday, I went to my favourite fish market to buy some sashimi tuna plus some tuna offcuts for our little dog, and on the way out, I glanced at the fresh NZ king salmon fillets in the display which they had on special for $39.70/kg, and I bought a couple.

I pan fried them this morning and ate one for my breakfast, and it was the nicest cooked salmon I have ever eaten, with an amazing texture and flavour.

The next nicest would be John West Alaskan Salmon at some $65/kg.

The Australian farmed salmon finishes a distant third.

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Mr Z loves mullet - the oiler, smellier, the better. Remove bones from fillets, wipe off stray scales, salt the skin side, fry in olive oil skin side down, turn and cook until all flesh changes colour (no hint of anything raw - very important to him). Sea mullet, (not Diamond mullet - no pungent taste & odour) and the taste and size varies with the cycle. He has it as it comes from the pan, no sauce or seasonings. Why would you?

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I would have some with him, if he’d share :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:
Nothing better than pan fried fish eaten straight away :laughing:

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