Catch in the Kitchen - Fish poached in Vermouth

by Michael Bok

It is the hot time of the year for bream and while trying to find something different to do with bream, I found the following recipe in an old magazine and decided it would work just as well using bream as the flathead they had specified.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon melted better

1 carrot, finely chopped

4 spring onions

Thinly sliced 4 bream fillets (totalling about 800 g)

½ cup vermouth (this is a reasonably priced drink so does not add a huge expense)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Salt to taste (I used a touch more lemon as I don't use salt)

½ cup cream

60 g butter cut up in small chunks

Extra cream to thin out sauce if needed

Coat the base of a large pan with the butter.

Scatter the carrots and the shallots over the base.

Put the fish in one layer over the top.

Pour vermouth and lemon juice (and the salt if you want).

Cut a round of baking paper the size of the pan and press onto the fish, put the lid on the pan.

Bring to simmer over high heat and immediately reduce heat to very low.

Poach the fish until it is just cooked.

Transfer the fillets to a warm plate, cover with foil and place in a warm spot.

Strain liquids from the pan into a bowl, discard the solids and return the liquid to the pan. Bring back to the boil over moderate heat, stir in the cream and simmer until slightly thickened.

Add any juices that have accumulated around the fish that has been put aside.

Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter one chunk at a time.

The sauce will thicken a bit and should have a thin consistency.

Add more cream if the sauce gets too thick. Serve with freshly cooked Tasmanian asparagus (which is in season at the moment), cut in half, snow peas and peas scattered around the fish and then add the sauce.

Pickled fish

While I was on holidays fishing in Arnhem Land a few years ago, I was shown a great trick to quickly pickle some fish.

We had a jar of spicy pickled onions that we had just finished and I was about to throw away the liquid when I was told to save it as we would pickle fish with it.

After catching some queenfish it was filleted, skinned and cut into cubes, put in the pickling liquid and left for a day or so.

We tried the fish over a couple of beers. It was easy to pickle and tasted great.

Seeing we have the wonderful Blue Banner pickled onions here - eat the onions and try it with some fish like trevally or what ever you like and either eat as it is or serve with a nice salad.