Cooking recipe tips and edibility of certain fish?

effluent · 26-08-2011 3:01pm #1

I wanted to set up a thread which would advise anglers on what fish are edible and/or what is the best way to cook them, if they decide to retain a fish, especially alternative fish.

I'm not trying to encourage people to keep all their fish, but there's no harm in bring home a small proportion home for the pot as rod caught fish would be the most sustainable method compared to other fishing methods in my opinion. I myself wouldn't be a big fan of eating fish, absolutly love the sport of it but often wonder what those fish would have tasted.

Some fish I caught but have not eaten include:
Conger eel, Dog Fish, Wrasse, Pouting, Whiting

I would be very intersted in peoples experiences on how edible unkown fish would be?

WeightierDisc · 26-08-2011 3:03pm

fish are a bit like mushrooms, all of them are edible but some of them only once

beer enigma · 26-08-2011 8:59pm

effluent wrote: »

Some fish I caught but have not eaten include:
Conger eel, Dog Fish, Wrasse, Pouting, Whiting

I would be very intersted in peoples experiences on how edible unkown fish would be?

I've eaten and enjoyed all of the above with the exception of Wrasse. Pouting is very delicate & if steamed or fried in breadcrumbs is especially nice. I wouldn't say it's as good as cod but it's a great alternative.

Dogfish is another worth a go - it's widely used in Spain. Seasoned flour with a pinch of paprika added & fried - yum

FTA69 · 26-08-2011 9:35pm

Whiting is a grand fish. I wouldn't be bothered going near the other ones you described.

stevenmu · 27-08-2011 9:44pm

Pollack and Coalie are looked down on a lot, but IMO make a really really good fish pie, and it's very quick and easy to do.

Also recently tried poaching some cheap smoked coalie fillets from aldi in a little milk and it worked out really well, but I think it'd be much better fresh.

bayliner · 27-08-2011 11:05pm

stevenmu wrote: »

Pollack and Coalie are looked down on a lot, but IMO make a really really good fish pie, and it's very quick and easy to do.

Also recently tried poaching some cheap smoked coalie fillets from aldi in a little milk and it worked out really well, but I think it'd be much better fresh.

i had those smoked colie from aldi too, oven baked them was fine but wouldnt eat 2 of them, grand though for a change,

effluent · 28-08-2011 12:20am

Andip wrote: »

I've eaten and enjoyed all of the above with the exception of Wrasse. Pouting is very delicate & if steamed or fried in breadcrumbs is especially nice. I wouldn't say it's as good as cod but it's a great alternative.

Dogfish is another worth a go - it's widely used in Spain. Seasoned flour with a pinch of paprika added & fried - yum

Just out of curiosity how was the conger prepared? Was it smakes or did you just bake it on it's own. I've often thought about keeping one, but the conger seems to have bit of a reputation for being scavengers...the way they gobble up fishing discards from fishing peirs. I've also heard that you can get ciguatera poisoning from conger.

I'm not a fan of pollock. Caught a 5lb pollock ah mackerel one night. I baked them all in the oven together, I was hopping the mackerel oils would add flavour to the pollock but it actually worked the other way round. Didn't do anything for the pollock, ended up trowing it out

Just another thing, when ever I'm cooking fish I like to cook it plain and simple; either baked/fried/grilled on it's own. I like to let the fish do the talking.

Forgot to mention Pike and Perch. I've heard that perch is a nice fish to eat, contrary to the pike

stevenmu · 28-08-2011 12:53am

effluent wrote: »

Forgot to mention Pike and Perch. I've heard that perch is a nice fish to eat, contrary to the pike

Well there's that well known old traditional country recipe for pike:

-Lay out a pike fillet
-Sprinkle with a single pinch of salt
-Add a tiny amount of freshly crushed black pepper
-Zest a lemon and put the spread the zest over the fillet
-With a very fine sieve, give a gentle coating of plain white flour (not self-raising)
-Cut 3 thin slice from the center of the zested lemon and lay them over the fillet.
-Wrap the whole lot in tin foil.
-Place on a baking tray in a pre-heated oven at 180 Celsius.
-Cook for 17 minutes and 35 seconds exactly
-Throw away the fish and eat the tin foil.

When I was younger I always heard bad things about perch, so never tried it, but recently I've been hearing lots of good things. I've even heard about a particular swiss guy who comes to Ireland for a fortnight every year, goes to a lake with decent sized perch. Spends the whole time catching them, freezes the lot and takes them home and sells them for a fortune.

(edit: I should add, I can't remember exactly what I was told that he keeps, and what he throws back, but it did sound like a pretty reasonable limit)

sickpuppy · 28-08-2011 1:32am

stevenmu wrote: »

Well there's that well known old traditional country recipe for pike:

-Lay out a pike fillet
-Sprinkle with a single pinch of salt
-Add a tiny amount of freshly crushed black pepper
-Zest a lemon and put the spread the zest over the fillet
-With a very fine sieve, give a gentle coating of plain white flour (not self-raising)
-Cut 3 thin slice from the center of the zested lemon and lay them over the fillet.
-Wrap the whole lot in tin foil.
-Place on a baking tray in a pre-heated oven at 180 Celsius.
-Cook for 17 minutes and 35 seconds exactly
-Throw away the fish and eat the tin foil.

When I was younger I always heard bad things about perch, so never tried it, but recently I've been hearing lots of good things. I've even heard about a particular swiss guy who comes to Ireland for a fortnight every year, goes to a lake with decent sized perch. Spends the whole time catching them, freezes the lot and takes them home and sells them for a fortune.

(edit: I should add, I can't remember exactly what I was told that he keeps, and what he throws back, but it did sound like a pretty reasonable limit)

Peoples ignorance with pike and perch is huge.
Was at a fishing competition on Loughrea lake a month ago its ireland biggest spring lake and lots of perch caught so took some peopel didnt want.
Skinned not scaled pull out fins witha pliars and you have alovely white fillet of fish.
Fried simply in butter they taste lovely go a lovely golden brown
they are bony but the fish i was cooking were above a pound before cleaned and skinned.

Pike is anotehr fish that gets a bad press its illegal to kill them now
but a fillet of pike from a clean river or lake is lovely too
people pay top dollar for farmed muck like sea bass and rainbow trout and salmon but say a pike is a dirty fish?

Racha78 · 28-08-2011 10:36am

Just as reference: colie (rock salmon) is actualy dog fish, and most of you have probably eaten pollock sold to you as cod in chip shops all over the country

...

dmc17 · 28-08-2011 11:03am

stevenmu wrote: »

Also recently tried poaching

dmc17 · 28-08-2011 11:05am

Racha78 wrote: »

Just as reference: colie (rock salmon) is actualy dog fish

Is colie not a coalfish?

aidanf · 28-08-2011 11:36am

Coalie is coalfish.

bayliner · 28-08-2011 11:51am

[QUOTE=stevenmu;74068703

When I was younger I always heard bad things about perch, so never tried it, but recently I've been hearing lots of good things. I've even heard about a particular swiss guy who comes to Ireland for a fortnight every year, goes to a lake with decent sized perch. Spends the whole time catching them, freezes the lot and takes them home and sells them for a fortune.

(edit: I should add, I can't remember exactly what I was told that he keeps, and what he throws back, but it did sound like a pretty reasonable limit)[/QUOTE]
we ate perch a lot when younger from lough ree when they were plentifull, lovely fish to eat ya skin them and with the right nack ya end up with a nice fillet, we always fried them in butter but back then ya fried everything:D.... havent had one in yrs!

yank_in_eire · 28-08-2011 12:13pm

Wrasse make nice fish cakes, and if you clean them a certain way you get a nice large chunk of boneless meat that's not bad fried.
That said, I take most of my fish spearfishing and there's just something unsporting about shooting a wrasse - maybe because they come right up to you like a big dumb puppy.:P

beer enigma · 29-08-2011 10:48am

effluent wrote: »

Just out of curiosity how was the conger prepared? Was it smakes or did you just bake it on it's own.

Its good with least preparation - on the grill, with a little salt, lemon and a few drops of olive oil; in the oven with lemon, olive oil & chopped parsley. Also, rosemary goes really well with it.

My sister emailed this one to me ages ago, but I've never tried it:

Baked Conger Eel (Congrio) with Tomato

Place the conger in an oven dish. Pour oil and wine over fish and salt and pepper to your liking.

Scatter the garlic, capers, parsley, basil and half of the tomatoes on top of the conger. Then, place the other half of the tomatoes around the conger.

Cover the baking dish and bake for 20 minutes. 5 minutes before removing from the oven, uncover the conger. Serve immediately, with rice

FTA69 · 29-08-2011 10:10pm

Pollack is a fine fish, I don't buy into this lark that it isn't good eating. Battered and fried it tastes the same as any other fish and as someone else said half of the "lovely cod in that chipper" is pollack anyway. Flaked into a pie it's delicious.

I've eaten pike before (lived with Polish people) and it was delicious, very bony though. The first coarse fish I ever caught was a perch and fried up it made grand eating.

aidanf · 29-08-2011 11:16pm

Pollack needs to be put on ice or in a cooler soon after it's been caught to be at it's best. It's well worth bringing a cooler bag with you when pollack fishing and then gutting and putting it in the cooler as soon as you've caught it.

beer enigma · 30-08-2011 9:41am

May be a daft question, but do many/any of the boats have cigarette lighter sockets that you could plug an electric cooler into if the skipper allowed ?

skipz · 30-08-2011 10:34am

effluent wrote: »

I've heard that perch is a nice fish to eat,

It sure is! Iam out in Perth at the moment and Perch are here in Dams and lakes of the lower south Western Australia. They are called redfins here and are a fish that was introduced and classed as a pest. It is illegal to return them alive so all that are caught are for the table.
Nearly fell of my chair when a local offered me some but tried it anyway, very good eating.

CJhaughey · 30-08-2011 10:44am

effluent wrote: »

but the conger seems to have bit of a reputation for being scavengers...the way they gobble up fishing discards from fishing peirs. I've also heard that you can get ciguatera poisoning from conger.

Ciguatera is only really found in reef fish in the tropics, it doesn't occur here.
Lots of fish are scavengers, look at what Cod eat not to mention Crabs and Lobster, shrimp and prawns.
Conger is highly prized in France and the Med countries.

stevenmu · 31-08-2011 4:18pm

Had some mackerel fishcackes last night. I was a bit sceptical when the missus suggested making fish cakes with them, but I was completely wrong. I was blown away by how good they are, this is how I'll be eating all my mackerel from now on.

(tricky fish to skin/scale when raw though

)

cathaloc · 02-09-2011 11:02pm

aidanf wrote: »

Pollack needs to be put on ice or in a cooler soon after it's been caught to be at it's best. It's well worth bringing a cooler bag with you when pollack fishing and then gutting and putting it in the cooler as soon as you've caught it.

Absolutely, the thing that affects the taste most is how the fish is treated, rather than the species, I think.

For pollack (and for all fish) the above is good advice. I also find that cutting their throats to beed them out results in a whiter, firmer fillet that tastes a lot better than if they are not bled out. They seem to freeze better when properly bled too.

derealbadger · 03-09-2011 5:21pm

stevenmu wrote: »

Pollack and Coalie are looked down on a lot, but IMO make a really really good fish pie, and it's very quick and easy to do.

Also recently tried poaching some cheap smoked coalie fillets from aldi in a little milk and it worked out really well, but I think it'd be much better fresh.

Someone told me that poaching fish was illegal?

bayliner · 03-09-2011 6:09pm

derealbadger wrote: »

Someone told me that poaching fish was illegal?

ha ha ha oh i suppose someone had to jump on that one ha ha

ring 20 · 04-09-2011 11:41pm

nothing like a bit of poached salmon. pollack is very good in a beer batter, bleed them straight away and cool fast as possible

sheesh · 11-09-2011 3:50pm

as everyone else is saying gut the fish as soon as possible and get it on ice as soon as possible to keep it as fresh as possible if fishing from a boat don't leave it until you get back to the pier and keep it out of the sun. mackeral particularly need to be looked after for this they seem to turn into a disgusting watery mush in no time.

anyway on topic eat whiting when i can get it no particular taste but take other flavours well.

conger is supposed to be very nice baked.

dogfish is a relative of monkfish so how bad can it be?

effluent · 12-09-2011 11:35pm

I've never really gutted a fish asap and place it in a freezer box, this could be a reason why certain fish might taste unpalatable. Most I've ever done is place the fish in around a lump of seaweed to keep it cool and keep the sun off it.

If I get the chance again I'll definitely keep a conger for the pot. I've heard it could be nice smoked.

From another thread I've read, there seems to be some issue with ammonia leaching into the flesh of the dogfish, so it needs to be skinned and filletted soon after keeping it.

Cooking recipe tips and edibility of certain fish?

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