Dolphin Fish, Dorado, Mahi Mahi…..

It’s been a while since we last posted… but we’ve discovered when you’re out fishing every day, its hard to find the time!

We are at Port Stephens for the start of the Striped Marlin season down here. Fishing has been great. And, one of our talented anglers also managed to snare this bull Dolphin Fish during the week so Capt. Scadwalker thought he would take the time to walk us through filleting and skinning Dolphin Fish.

Start by catching a Dolphin Fish – once that is achieved, the rest of the steps are pretty easy. Hee hee… (Apart from Leather-jackets, Dolphin Fish are one of the only species of fish Capt. Scadwalker knows of that can be skinned in this manner.)

Cut around the entire side fillet of the fish making the cut shallow literally just cutting through the skin. Grab a hand hold at the back of the head of the fish and pull down separating the skin from the flesh. This can take a fair bit of effort depending on the size of the fish but the skin should come off in one piece. Traditional lure makers in Hawaii use this skin inside their resin head marlin lures.

Once the skin has been removed, cut along the same line again horizontally, this time angling deeper using the bones as a guide until reaching the backbone. Turn the fish over and do the same to the other side – it’s best to get both sides of the fish to this point before attempting to remove the fillet. At this point, all that is remaining to be separated is the flesh from the backbone. Cut yourself a finger-hold at the tail end and slowly lift the fillet while cutting along the backbone notch by notch. Once you’ve reached the rib cage release the tail section of the fillet and cut around the ribs from the spine side leaving the rib cage connected to the fish frame. On smaller fish it is possible to cut through the rib bones and de-bone later, but due to the size of this fish it was better to cut the rib-cage out at this stage.

Once the fillet is separated from the frame and you have done the other side as well, you need to remove any remaining bones and the bloodline by cutting vertically up the fillet where the backbone was. Cut on either side of this line to remove completely.

Now you will have left two boneless pieces from each size which can be further cut and divided into take home portions. To best store the fish especially if you are freezing for later, dry the fillets and remove all air from the plastic bag before sealing.

Tip: Zip-lock bags are best for freezing fish – a simple method of vacuum sealing the bag is to ‘zip-lock’ the bag almost completely leaving only a centermetre gap, submerse the bag in water leaving the gap exposed and the water pressure will force out any air trapped in the bag. Seal before removing from the liquid.

Dolphin Fish is very tasty and there is no need for fancy recipes. We cooked ours in butter after lighting dusting with plain flour. Yum! It is also a very moist fish and doesn’t take well to beer batter or crumbing.

Tackle never ceases to amaze me these days. Reels are getting smoother, rods are so much lighter with more feel and power where it’s needed and with the introduction of braided lines opportunities are now endless, limited only by the imagination.

I will get into rods, reels, lines and other stuff in later posts, but for today I can’t wait to tell you about a new something that has got me very excited of late. Towadis – they are tiny, little, state-of-the-art Japanese lures that are made to such perfection and balance it seems a shame to even tie one on your line in case something bigger or stronger or little quicker then expected steals one from you.

Being a North Queenslander used to catching Barramundi, our recent move to the more southern waters of the Gold Coast have seen me searching for that new something as close as I can get to Barra fever, so naturally enough its Bream fever. And these Towadis make it all the more enjoyable.

Smith are now importing lures of all different shape and size, from Jigs to Poppers, Bream to Barra, big and small, surface and deep diving – and now that they have landed in Australian waters, I just can’t get enough of the masterful creations from the land of the rising sun. One of these many new imports is the Towadi. It’s a surface lure 43mm long and just perfect for Bream. I always turn to using surface lures when I can, and am even prepared to sacrifice a few bites if it is not the ideal way to fish at the time, because it’s simply more fun. Not that these lures are any disadvantage to your fishing. On the contrary, surface fishing will out fish most of any type if it’s done correctly – even if the strike is more of a ‘sipping’ bite of a Bream rather then the ‘boof’ of a Barra.

Fishing is all much the same to me, whether it is catching ‘Grander’ Marlin on the GBR or Bream on Towadis in the Broadwater close to home. I love it all and can find enjoyment in all types of fishing, just as long as I have a rod in my hands. (So to speak).

K and I returned from another ‘glamour’ morning on the Gold Coast Broadwater this week (photos above). Conditions were perfect for fishing with our tiny Towadi’s. Being such a small, delicate, surface lure, it can easily get lost in any sort of wave made by even a gentle breeze. Not to mention trying to cast them accurately, so the lightest braid known to man and a 6 ft graphite spin rod with a bit of tip action is standard equipment.

We both laid our first casts over a weed edge riddled with baitfish herded up into the shallows by patrolling Bream, Tailor and Flathead. And, it didn’t take very long before a boil and that familiar ‘sipping’ sucked down my Towadi. A quick fight and the first fish for the morning was de-hooked and released. Bream were giving the bait a real touch up along the edge and it was simple enough to get bites casting anywhere near them.

Sometimes the Bream would miss the lure or never sucked hard enough to get hooked, but by letting the lure float and sit on the surface, they usually can’t resist making a more determined second effort and reward you with a hookup. I’ve let the lure float there for what seems an eternity before just to see who can out last who. And I’m sure that he is swimming there looking at it and thinking “if it just moves one more bit”…. Normally if he out lasts you, the slightest twitch with the rod tip will get him to bite again.

On this morning, the action was thick and fast until the wind came up and shut the bite down. K managed the best fish for the morning and I was also lucky to catch a nice Tailor that was kind enough not to bite through the light leader. Even though these Bream we catch in the ‘main’ Broadwater are quite tasty, we decided to let them live another day. But it won’t be long until we head back there and ‘rip’ out a couple and share to you a beauty Bream recipe or two.

Stay tuned for that.

Recipe inspired by Hideo Dekura’s “Japanese Cooking at Home”. He calls them Hand-ball Sushi but I think Sushi Balls has a much better ring to it!

Having spent many years in Tokyo where you can get it home delivered just as easily as Pizza (with an ice cold six pack of beer on the side no less!) I am a big fan of sushi – any type, any style, any time. And so, when faced with spending the day on the boat with Capt Scadwalker preparing for an evening cruise, I decided to try making a new style of sushi to give us something yummy for dinner when it was all over. Capt. Scadwalker was busy on the boat so he didn’t really take part. When he did come in to help, he didn’t appreciate my comments about his mis-shapen balls so he pretty much left me to it

Generally I find sushi really easy to make but quite a bit fiddle-y for every day. This was definitely the easiest that I’ve made so far, but the preparation alone still took over an hour. Much easier to pop down to the local sushi train but a lot less fun.

We’re lucky that the galley on the boat has most of the mod-cons available and the seafood shop is literally on the wharf next door, but I still had to improvise here and there. But improvising is half of the fun!

Let’s start with the rice:

What you need – sushi rice (or short grain rice) and sushi vinegar. (About 1/2 cup sushi vinegar for 2 cups rice etc.)

In a bowl of cool water, scrunch the rice through your fingers to wash and tip the milky water out. Repeat a couple of times until the water clears then let the rice stand in a colander for about 30 minutes. (If you leave the rice soaking in water for too long it tends to suck up the water and then your rice will be bit gluggy.) If you have a ricecooker then the next step is easy, simply pour in the rice and fill with water to the corresponding number on the side of the machine and flick ‘Cook’.

If you don’t have a rice cooker – you should buy one. Haha. Actually, it’s still pretty easy. My scientific method for making sticky rice is (and I forgot who taught me this but thank you!) to put the rice in the saucepan, place my hand flat palm down lightly on top and fill with water until it almost covers my hand. Cook on a very high heat until the water boils then turn the temperature down very low for 15-20 minutes. Resist the temptation to lift the lid!

The sushi experts always talk about using a wooden bowl for the next part but I don’t have anything like that at home let alone on the boat so I settled for the largest plastic dish I can find. Tip in your cooked rice and pour the 1/3 of the sushi vinegar over. To mix it through, keep the paddle vertical like you are combing the rice. What you are trying to do is break up the lumps without squashing the rice which is very easy to do. Pour another 1/3 of the mixture in and keep going. If you have time, you can fan the rice to cool it down but I never have time for that so I put it to the side to cool by itself while I do the toppings and keep the final 1/3 of sushi vinegar for later. Wet a paper towel or two and put over the rice to stop it from drying out while it cools.

Toppings:

We went to Peter’s Seafood on the Spit to see what he had available for the toppings and settled for some fresh salmon, cooked prawns, scallops, seafood sticks and the eggs I brought from home.

You can use whatever you want. That’s the beauty of sushi – (almost) anything goes!

Prawns: After peeling, just use a sharp knife to cut them down the middle from the under-side almost to the skin and flatten on your cutting board.

Egg: Mix with one teaspoon of Mirin and pour a thin layer in a fry

pan (tilt the frypan until it’s spread evenly) and cook over low heat. Flip to cook the other side and tip onto the cutting board and cut into 2cm wide ribbons.

I didn’t have a fry pan on the boat (okay, I did but it seemed too hard) so I cooked in the microwave

Prepare your other toppings by slicing thinly to the size of a 20 cent coin. We turned one scallop into two toppings by slicing horizontally through the middle. We also sliced the seafood stick very finely to create a pretty mosaic look topping. You can do whatever you want. The close up on the pictures show what we did in more detail.

And the balls:

Your rice should be cooled by now. Pour the final third of the sushi vinegar over and separate any remaining lumps.

For the final step you will need a bowl of water to wet your hands and a square of glad (plastic) wrap.

To make the balls, first wet your hands so the rice doesn’t stick. Grab a small quantity of rice and roll into a loose ball. Place your selected topping face down in the middle of the glad (plastic) wrap and the rice ball on top. Gather the corners together and twist the ends until the plastic tightens around the ball and compresses the two together.

Wha-la….Sushi Balls!

Serve with soy sauce and wasabi and enjoy!

Forsaking all other fish, we love Coral Trout and so it was the obvious choice for our very first recipe. (Besides, we have an abundance leftover from the Scadwalker’s recent spear fishing trips on the GBR!) So, when we were invited for dinner to the house of J&M (non practicing vegetarians!), what else could we bring?

Fish is our standard. Plus they love it too.

While Capt. Scadwalker prepares the fish, I make breadcrumbs in the blender.

Use your favourite type of bread – we particularly like wholegrain types for a bit of a unique consistency.

Also, adding a herb blend to the crumbs gives it extra flavour. If you like spicy, why not try something with a bit of bite?

We just love the taste of fresh home-made breadcrumbs, but of course, the store bought ones work fine.

With the pre-filleted fish, Capt. Scadwalker starts by patting it dry with a paper towel to make it more manageable (more about filleting fish later.)

1. Using a sharp knife, make a vertical cut at the tail end of the fillet.

2. Holding the knife still (facing away from you) use your handhold on the tail end to pull the fish towards you separating the flesh from the skin.

3. De-bone the fish by completely removing the section on either side of the spine. (For mackerel and other blood fish this also works well to remove the bloodline.)

4. Slice the fillets into manageable pieces (no more than 5cm thick), as even in size as you can for cooking consistency.

Next we set out the three bowls for crumbing – we use larger bowls to contain the mess – flour, whisked egg (with a little milk mixed in to make it go further) and the breadcrumbs mixture.

After covering the entire piece in flour, we dip in the egg then crumbs leaving a handy finger hold to save yourself from breadcrumbing your fingers.

Simply reverse and hold the already breadcrumbed end to finish off and lay on a large plate ready for the pan.

The pan should be preheated to a medium heat. We like to use canola oil and add enough to cover the frying surface. Allow a minute or two for the oil to heat. Without crowding the pan too much, fry the fish pieces until golden brown which should only take a couple of minutes each side turning only once.

If you are unsure about temperature, fish is better cooked at a lower heat to be safe than to risk overheating at a too high temperature. The fish will flake in half easily when it is done.

This is a really simple recipe which allows the flavour of the fish to come through. Also good with other varieties of flavoursome fish including Barramundi, Snapper, Mackerel, Red Emperor, Pearl Perch, Hog Snapper and Grouper.

Serve with home-made potato chips and salad.

Please let us know what you think – questions welcome!

Ingredients

Bread (and your choice of herb), egg (a dash of milk), plain flour, your choice of fish and canola oil.
Preparation time: 20 minutes.