Can you eat Tope??

[Ryan]

I've eaten shark quite a few times and must say it was rather good :D
But some nice juicy Octopus is hard to beat ! 8)

[donal domeney]

Steve, if your ever down this way try Power Head in east Cork Getting plenty of wrasse there at the moment. last sat. had 14 in an hour 4 or 5 over the 3lb. mark
No.1 fish is ling followed by haddock both fried with smoked rashers. try that and you'll never eat a wrasse again.

[carlbfast]

Any of you ever eaten shark? i used to get it a lot from a fishmongers in North Yorkshire but its expensive,5 pounds for 1 steak....its lovely...just shallow fry it in some butter for about 10 mins then eat.

[Al]

Yeah i got shark in a chip shop after a night out(prob the only reason i bought it) and i thought it was gorgeous.Dont know what type of shark it was though?

[samonwalkabout]

Probably just an ole doggie *SandShark*..after the pub everything taste great deep fried :D

[dtsacs]

I have to say , Ray followed by Haddock then Ling are the fish I like best.

As for Pollack it's fine once you clean it out shortly after catching it, grill it with a bit of butter and black pepper over it, and a squirt of lemon juice to finish off.

Damien

[Steve]

Wouldn't be a huge fan of pollock, although I'd prefer to eat something like that as opposed to a fish like tuna, cod etc, whose populations are under serious threat.

Interesting point though - a lot of TOP Dublin hotels are selling a fish called "blossom" in their restaurants (places like the Merrion, Conrad etc). Generally costs about 25-30 euro for a main course.

The actual name of this fish??? The humble pollock......

They've some bloody cheek. One waitress, when asked what type of fish it was, said "it's a member of the cod family". She wasn't lying, but it took all my self control not to shout across a crowded restaurant "OH YOU MEAN POLLOCK"???

Can't stand this practice of calling fish by another name a là rock salmon, and SEA bass...there's no such animal!

[Irish_Shamrock]

Just ate my first Gurnard tonight - my God, what a treat! :P Fried up in some butter with a wee taste of Cajun Power sprinked over for good measure... Canny wait to catch more tomorrow! :wink:

[Davy Murdoch]

ye but its not very nice...the fish you all must taste is wrasse it is lovely :lol:

I Know a man from Bangor who is going to Jump RIGHT down your neck with no Diversions.... :shock:

you`re right drew it does piss me off that people are eating wrasse but im not going to get on my high horse and start ranting about how long it takes wrasse to grow and how easy it is to wipe out every 2lb+ wrasse in an area.the reason im not is cos if the people who eat fish dont know anything about the fish they are eating then they are not worth the lecture just like the mackerel bashers :x

[Esox lunatic]

Eating pollack: I posted this in Scomber Cafe under 'Lidl Smoker'. The thread started off about fish smokers from Lidl and how they can be used to smoke pollack.

On the subject of eating pollack, I saw 'Abadejo' on the menu of a restaurant when in Southern Spain a couple of weeks ago. On checking, discovered Abadejo is pollack. It was served as 'abadejo en salsa marinera'.

Found a picture of the dish on a Spanish website:

http://www.gastronomiavasca.net/recipes ... =6&x=4&y=1

I'll try cooking this sometime during the summer (with a little help from my wife).

There's some great fish recipes on this site, with a background details on the fish. It's in Spanish, but running an online translator may help.

http://www.gastronomiavasca.net/recipes ... c_cat_id=1

PS for the Scomber Cafe Clientele who prefer a liquid lunch there is a great section on Cocktails under 'Cócteles' (see, Spanish isn't that difficult!).

There's some MPEG files of the bartender making the cocktails to the sound of some great music (Moby)

http://www.gastronomiavasca.net/recipes ... c_cat_id=1

Have fun learning Spanish (hic)

E.L.

[ian 123]

i myself dont eat pollack...but i heard wrasse is like eating a boot!!

[quarterflounder]

We can all be brassed off about how long certain fish take to grow vs. how tasty they are etc. but I suppose the thing we should focus on is that most of us take a few for the pan and put the rest back. Then look at what boats, poachers and some of our Eastern European friends do in comparison. It's a no brainer - we should focus our attention in those areas and hound the Fisheries board till they wake up because we all know the real score.

[petekd]

V good point Quarter Flounder, I think in the past, we have as a group, I must add, myself included, been quick to jump down the throats of people who have been deemed to be out of line in either quantity of fish taken or angling practises. In hindsight and with a more balanced viewpoint these days, we shouldnt be concentrating on this at all. It is indeed, the commercials, the poachers and other less educated ( in conservation matters ) people who we should be venting our anger at. The angler who fishes all year and takes his few fish home from time to time is certainly causing nowhere near the damage caused by these fellas fishing the same marks and bagging up on the undersize scraps the rest of us return.

I myself took home, on Sunday, for the first time this year, a bass of 3lbs or so. I didnt want a bigger one as there are only two of us, and a smaller one would have been a waste of time. It was well over the size limits incidentally. Anyone who has fished with me on a regular basis knows I return virtually all the fish I catch apart from the odd one or too here and there for the pan. I firmly believe this is the way the majority of us operate these days. The days of "take it home for the cat" are long gone.

If this is, and I do believe it is, the way we operate then lets all get away from the pointscoring when we learn of occasional fish taken for the table and instead channeling it into educating people where and when we can. Theres nothing too confrontational in suggesting to a youngster that maybe he should put that half pound wrasse back, or putting a slight guilt trip on someone about to despatch yet another fish for the pot with the freezer groaning. Leave the confrontational stuff to the Fisheries boards, Gardai etc and concentrate on instead the people you fish with or end up fishing alongside from time to time, you will be pleasantly surprised at the results.[/u]

[corbyeire]

good points quaterflounder and petekd - i think aswell on forums the tone of a post cant be taken - so sometimes posters arent jumping down throats - sometimes they are, but pm if anyone has serious trouble about taking a particular fish etc.

the real serious trouble is the over fishing and thats where the energy should be :idea:

[seanyroche]

With shark and Rays I think you have to put them in the freezer for a week or two to get rid of the smell of ammonia.

Pollock is lovely to eat, especially when you cook it on the camp fire with butter and pepper.

Conger is an under used fish, its white flesh is similar to cod but lacks much of the flavour. I cooked my first conger in beer batter and had plenty in the freezer which went into a fish pie. Its freaky that after a few hours when you have it de headed, Gutted and cut into 12 inch sections that it still jumps when your cleaning in the sink

[bigbadtom]

To save all the hassle why not stick to bacon and cabbage.

[grady]

well, another skiper in westport told me to boil dogfish in the cider (by old irish resipt) might try this sometime

[hugo]

I think fish cuisine has moved on a lot over the last four years......

[barracuda]

Most common battered fish in Australian chippers is shark - they call it 'flake' - actually gummy shark. They also regularly eat freshwater perch there.

Saw something on RTE couple of weeks back about a tradition on the Aran Islands where someone brings wrasse around to the neighbours at Christmas, so I presume they eat it, although maybe it is smoked???

Pollack has nice flesh, although can be a bit bland in taste, but good eating.

I've heard nothing but bad stuff about dog fish for eating.

[twinkle]

dog fish are very tasty done as gojons or in a stirfry. bullhuss are not so nice very strong amonia taste.i would expect smoothies and spurs would be the same i had to dump all the oil out of the fryer after cooking it the stench tope i have always returned to the sea. tried wrasse once there was a strong taste of iodine off of them. gurnard has to be the nicest iv ever tasted. might try and get some seal meat this season eskimo s swear by it. if it takes a hook it should be ok
to bring it on board and club it one of the other lads gave me some recipes last year might get to try them this year