Category: food & drink

We went fishing yesterday, and overdid it a bit. 8:30am till 7pm. The hat, shirt and sunscreen weren’t enough, I still got a bit cooked.

The upside was that we caught a variety of fish, sadly none very big. We got lots of Yellowtail, two Tailor, and one each of Leatherjacket, Pike, Trevally (some kind), Whiting, Bream and Tarwhine. We were continuously catching and throwing back tiny Bream and Tarwhine, some too small to even fit the whole hook in their mouths. Greedy little buggers.

We ate one or two of each, some as sashimi, some fried whole. The standouts were the whole shallow fried Tailor and the Trevally sashimi. You can tell that Trevally is in the same family as Yellowtail Kingfish. The meat has a similar texture and taste. The Leatherjacket is destined for hotpot tonight!

People seem to be hesitant to eat fish they catch raw.  All you have to do is make an effort to keep the fish in good condition. Fish should be kept at about 0°C because the protein fibers are shorter than in meat, making it easier for microorganisms to propagate. We take an esky full of ice along with us, the caught fish goes straight into the ice/water slurry. The fish die quickly and painlessly (in theory).

When preparing the fish, carefully remove all of the scales and inner organs. Cleaning the fish properly is even more important than true freshness. This part can be done wet. The next step, filleting, should be done dry. Water can ruin the texture of the meat. When cutting and cleaning the fish, keep your knives, the knife handles, the cutting board and your hands as clean as possible. Small fish, especially those with shiny bluish backs, like sardines, tend to bruise easily, and even the Japanese will not eat them raw unless they are super fresh.

A technique I hope to learn someday is ikejime. As soon as the fish is taken out of the sea, a special hooked tool is used to crush its hindbrain. The heart keeps beating and pumping blood. The idea is to get the fish to pump out its own blood by cutting arteries in the gills and tail. You have to remove the blood because otherwise the fish will retain an unpleasant fishy smell. And you have to restrain the fish because otherwise it will flap about, making the flesh less tasty. A fish restrained the ikejime way is only brain dead—it is so fresh that the muscles still move a little.

We bought an Ascasso Dream a few weeks ago. It was a bit of an impulse buy, although we’ve been pondering getting an espresso machine for some time. It’s just so sexy we couldn’t resist. I knew making espresso wouldn’t be easy, we’ve been practicing over the last few weeks and just recently starting to get good at it. Chika made a great cup this morning! Good fresh beans seem to be one of the critical factors. Our favorite at the moment is the house blend from Forsyth’s in Naremburn. Another discovery was that our cheapy grinder just wouldn’t cut it. I splurged on a Rancilio Rocky.

Chika usually cooks. She’s much better at it than me and enjoys it. She’s still recovering from the flu so today I tried making one of my favourite dishes, Japanese style simmered fish. Redfish (金目鯛) is in season at the moment and suits this dish. Its related to Snapper with a slightly lighter taste. I followed the recipe as closely as I could and Chika called out advice from the couch. It was a success! woot!

We have a bilingual cookbook that we picked up in Japan. Best cookbook I ever bought. I used a large shallow pot/pan. The normal drop lid made from foil didn’t look like it would sit on top of the fish very well, so I used a paper towel (with a few holes cut in it to let the steam out) instead. From time to time, spoon sauce over the top. Apart from that, I did exactly as shown in the book.

Here’s some extra pages from the book on the basics of simmering