Cooking mangrove jack

[choppa]

I think that good eating fish (like jacks) should not be "fooled around" with, best leave all the onions and chillies and stuff for the lesser eating quality fish (like Barra) Whiting and Snapper etc and the like should be cooked simply and not over cooked to savour the flavour of quality fresh fish, just my opinion of course, but, it is what I do myself.

same as steak mate,,,,,,,,,, some like it rare,,,,,, some like it medium,,,,,, some like it well done,,,,,,,,,,

but if jack to you is in the top 3 of seafood,,,,,,,,,,, ????????????,,,,,,,,,,

[Noelm]

not really rating the eating qualities of a jack, even though I think they are good, i just feel that GOOD fresh fish should not be overpowered with a dozen different "herbs and spices"

[sleepygreg]

I half agree with noelm on that one. A good quality, fresh fish should stand alone shallow fried with a dusting of flour, or tepanyaki style on the bbq hotplate, or wrapped in foil with a bit of lemon. But with the addition a one or two fresh herbs like coriander, chili, garlic, ginger, basil,thyme, oregano, chives (FRESH - not the dried variety)....or a sprinkle of soy, mirin, saki, worcestershire, wine........................NOT ALL AT THE SAME TIME..........can turn a great feed into a culinary dream. Just my humble opinion.

Cheers
Greg

[Noelm]

yep thats what I was trying to say, by all means "do your thing" but heaps of pastes and herbs and stuff is best left for other "less" desireable but still quite edible species.

[-Henno-]

We have a couple of jacks we got today that I am wondering what to do with this time. May try your lemon/lime one Choppa.

Has anybody ever found jacks to have fatty skin? The last one we got we baked whole and the skin seems to be quite thick and fatty, kind of gelatinous if that's the right word. One of the ones we have today is quite fat through the guts for a 45cm model so I was thinking about filleting and skinning him coz of this.

Anybody ever filleted one?

[aussiefool]

yep I always fillet mine, then just flour and fry. I do this to all "new" fish I try so I can then get a better idea what it really teasts like

[-Henno-]

How about the skin though? Ever noticed it being kinda jelly like?

[aussiefool]

never taken any real notice, if your worried just skin or do what I do and cook it skin sind down till crispy and lift off once cooked