How to cook australian salmon

[SnapHead101]

HI all,

I was fishing off Kangaroo Island last week and ran into a patch of large salmon (approx 70cm each). We boated ten of them as we only had light weight whiting gear and one rod with heavier but older line that snapped often when lifting the fish into the boat.
I've baked one in the oven and the taste was great (I bled the fish straight away) however the flesh is somewhat dry. We wrapped the fish in alfoil .

Two questions;

1.) I now have a bunch of fillets of salmon to cook up, any suggestions on how to do this so they don't turn out dry?

2.) Do people cut out the red parts of the salmon flesh and discard these ?

Many thanks

[blaze]

Not real keen on the bigger ones to eat, much prefer the ones half the size of your catch. Normally fillet and skin, shallow fry in a bit of butter. The bigger fish may go well in a fish cake as they are a bit dryer.
Bloody great fun to catch though
cheers
blaze

[sleepygreg]

they work great in any fish curry recipe, and also for fish cakes.....especially the spicy thai ones. other than that........dont bother....too dry and too strong in the flavour.

[Noelm]

OK, I have eaten plain old Aussie Salmon heaps of times, first off, the Fish needs to be fresh, not a couple of days old, fillet and skin, cut away any Blood meat (that is important) then cut into Fish cocktail sized pieces, egg and Bread Crumbs or Batter, but cook untill only just cooked, (do not cremate the thing), it will be then moist and flavoursome (is there such a word?) they do however have a "fishy" taste, some rate that as a bonus, some do not, unlike (say) Whiting that is very unfishy

[PNG1M]

Hey...used to catch plenty of them off the beach at Budgewoi on the NSW Central Coast. I always dug a deepish kind of hole in the sand and bled the Salmon straight away leaving em' head first in the hole. I did the same for tailor.

Cooking: Yep, also did the alfoil/oven bit & results reasonable but not worth writing home about.

The best method I found was as follows:

YES, cut out & remove those dark red bits - that's a must as those bits taste crap.
Make sure you skin the fillets too.

Season some plain flour with some salt & pepper & some mixed herbs & maybe some powdered garlic & cover the salmon fillets in it (usually by shaking them with the flour in a plastic bag).

Beat up a small egg and a cup or so of milk (or even milk by itself works). Dip the flour coated fillets in the liquid then chuck 'em in some pre-heated oil in a frypan - or deep fryer if you have one.

Fry until golden brown & cooked through but don't overcook or they'll become dryish. I cook tailor the same way. The kids also like salmon if you prepare it as above but in fish fingers style (and minus the garlic)

If you have too many fillets to cook, chuck some salt on the rest then bung em in a zip-lock plastic bag & they freeze quite well for a month or three.

I've also bbq'd Salmon fillets on the hotplate and no complaints from the taste buds...a splash of amber fluid on the plate during the cooking process & they go down a treat!

[jimbo 69]

a lot my fish gets shallow fried in peanut oil in a very hot wok, lightly coated in seasoned flower and not cooked for to long

[Crunchy]

Smoking is a good option, gut, head off, butterfly, sprinkle with brown sugar and chuck in the smoker with your favourite wood / sawdust. (Can sprinkle with rock salt for a few hours before smoking to draw out the moisture if a dryer end result desired).

[FNQCairns]

We used to make fish cakes out of them, egg, mash potato or sweet potato, onions, mayonnaise, breadcrumb then whatever spices, herbs appeal.

Really good stuff and for some reason I think salmon just works in fishcakes like nothing else I have tried.

cheers fnq

[ozbee]

if you grab the fillets and soak them in the cheap clear white vinegar for ten minutes then gently drop the fillets into simmering water till it flakes like tuna which doesn't take long . from there you can make fish cakes or like tuna with sun-dried tomatoes etc . have have done this with boneto and it turns out as good as any of those tin tuna cans cant see why this type of fish would not even be better.

[Dirtysanchez]

Do you have a smoker ? I'd try that if it were me.
I used to catch them when I lived in Sydney and tried numerous ways of making curry etc.

Definitely cut the red meat out and discrad, or give to dogs, or if you don't have dogs, the neighbours for their pets. My dogs had the shiniest coats after they ate the 'blood meat' as I called it

[madman1]

Gee,

It would have been a long drive in the Range Rover from Mackay!

Not that I have tried or caught them but i would think the red meat should be removed as i know in Trevally it tastes like crap.

Cook 'em Malcolm Douglas style with Chilli, paprika, salt, pepper, coconut milk, tinned tomatoes and a bit of diesel wrapped in foil and cooked for a week!lol

Cheers


Mark