It is my habit to eat sardines. In fact I'm a bit of a sardine connoisseur. I'd prefer fresh sardines when I can get them, but will settle for the canned stuff.
As canned sardines go I dips me lid to the Spanish brand, Escuris. I will eat the contents of other cans but Escuris is particularly good -- Portuguese sardinillas..
My two little dogs lick out the leftovers in the cans and get a nutritional 'hit'.
The point of such consumption is that sardines are great tucker. Nutritionally one of the best the sea has to offer. Cheap. Plentiful.
...and sustainable. That's the key element: those massive school fish -- anchovies and sardines -- are still out there in multi billion fish numbers. Generally, to eat fish other than a few species fosters marine extinction.
I don't recommend the activity... generally.
But...
I don't recommend the activity... generally.
But...
Among locally caught species kosher tucker comprises:
1. Whiting
2. Australian Sardine
3. Mussels
4. Calamari/Squid
5. Blue Swimmer Crab
I hardly ever eat crab but the rest I do. (But then I see so many Blue Swimmer Crabs in local waters...?) I love mussels more than I do sardines and the new live mussel packs that are available offer delicious fare.
And Whiting -- given its price -- is a special occasion fish.
Unfortunately, fish farmers harvest and grow sardines just to feed Tuna. And so much sardine is simply churned into fishmeal for industrial style farming on land and sea that its carefree use is obscene.
I used to collect mussels in Port Philip Bay for take home eating. That was many moons ago...(sigh) Mussels were then seen as poverty food and my mother always protested when I forced her to cook them. Nowadays with the mussel farms along the southern coastline it's great to get back to the unique taste of this bivalve.
In Scotland, were there is an extensive mussel farming industry, you can go to restaurants which serve only mussels in so many different ways.
It is yummy tucker. Ith gu leòir! (Eat plenty!)
This brings me to squid. I call it squid because I'm sure that not everyone knows what fresh "calamari" looks like. I've been preparing squid for years and it lends itself to many approaches across a wide range of cuisines.
Squid is special. More giving and amendable than octopus (which is so darn difficult to prepare and cook). Delightfully squishy and coloured to gut and trim.
Like Whiting, prepared squid freezes well.
I used to fish and while I may not have caught much in the way of finned critters, the problem with fishing is that you more often than not eat what you catch, regardless of species. Unless you do catch and release...but what's the point if you can't eat what you hunt.
Around where I am, people fish and catch stingray by accident and separating your hardware from the ray isn't an easy call. The Estuary Stingray is also in challenged numbers on the Easy Coast of Australia and I'd be mortified if I hampered its lifestyle in any way...
So...I'm giving up fishing: the drop-a-line, catch-what-you-can, fishing and instead and taking up squid jigging.
Jigging is very targeted and species specific.
Fishing for squid is not a major activity this far north here in South East Queensland. But we have the prawns/shrimp in our seas and the squid eat them. So I'm thinking: Nightime. Torches. Squid jigs. Handlines....
The world is my mussel...
And Whiting -- given its price -- is a special occasion fish.
Unfortunately, fish farmers harvest and grow sardines just to feed Tuna. And so much sardine is simply churned into fishmeal for industrial style farming on land and sea that its carefree use is obscene.
We are now able to supply frozen South Australia Sardines for sale via this website.Better to harvest the invasive Carp.
18kg Nude Blocks.$0.85 kg plus GST minimum order 1 pallet approx 1 tonne.[Lukin Fisheries]
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| Australian blue mussels |
In Scotland, were there is an extensive mussel farming industry, you can go to restaurants which serve only mussels in so many different ways.
It is yummy tucker. Ith gu leòir! (Eat plenty!)
This brings me to squid. I call it squid because I'm sure that not everyone knows what fresh "calamari" looks like. I've been preparing squid for years and it lends itself to many approaches across a wide range of cuisines.
Squid is special. More giving and amendable than octopus (which is so darn difficult to prepare and cook). Delightfully squishy and coloured to gut and trim.
Like Whiting, prepared squid freezes well.
I used to fish and while I may not have caught much in the way of finned critters, the problem with fishing is that you more often than not eat what you catch, regardless of species. Unless you do catch and release...but what's the point if you can't eat what you hunt.
Around where I am, people fish and catch stingray by accident and separating your hardware from the ray isn't an easy call. The Estuary Stingray is also in challenged numbers on the Easy Coast of Australia and I'd be mortified if I hampered its lifestyle in any way...
So...I'm giving up fishing: the drop-a-line, catch-what-you-can, fishing and instead and taking up squid jigging.
Jigging is very targeted and species specific.
Fishing for squid is not a major activity this far north here in South East Queensland. But we have the prawns/shrimp in our seas and the squid eat them. So I'm thinking: Nightime. Torches. Squid jigs. Handlines....
The world is my mussel...
Local Squids:
