Butterfly filleting garfish?

[Damo79]

Hi,

does anyone know how to butterfly fillet garfish? Apparently there is a method to remove the spine and ribs leaving you with one big fillet.

Cheers

Damo

[Bigyakka]

Gherkin put up a thread somewhere, but don't know wher

[Ghurkin]

Mordy put up a bloody good post about garfish.

I scale, cut the head off then gut the gars cutting carefully all the way up to the tail, use a scourer to clean all the black lining out of the gut cavity, then place the fish on a cutting board gut cavity facing up, you can put a washcloth under the fish to stop it slipping.

Put your thumbs in the cavity and gently push down either side of the backbone to start the fish butterfling, then take whatevers handy say, a rolling pin, empty beer bottle whatever and rollit across the fish from one end to the other, when you work out how much preassure to apply you will hear a rapid clickin noise, thats the small rib bones breaking off the backbone, dont worry about them you wont realy notice them after cooking the fish.

After the gar is flat, run the tip of a sharp knife held at about a 45 degree angle either side of the backbone then simply pull the backbone up and cut the tail off, my cat loves these backbones .

I have found that bread crumbing is a bit to thick for these fish, so is beer batter in my opinion, the thing to try is either plain seasoned flour, soda water batter or tempura batter, what you want is a thin coating that doesnt overpower the sweet taste of garfish. Ive had people round my place and cooked fresh gars served hot on buttered breadrolls and they dissapear real quick just ask cheater, frappa, yakker or wokka.

Hope this helps

ps thinking of running another gar fish sesh at mornington in the near future (2- 4weekish from now)if anyones interested, same deal as last time, launch fishies beach, paddle south to my little reef, catch gars, back to my place to learn how to clean and cook them, and of course wash them down with a frosty home brew for those that want.

cheers Ghurkin

[vikodin]

Ya making my mouth water

[Ghurkin]

Ya making my mouth water

I have that effect, usually on women though

[wokka1]

Ive had people round my place and cooked fresh gars served hot on buttered breadrolls and they dissapear real quick just ask cheater, frappa, yakker or wokka.

Ha has, he did, we did. Loved em. I get dirty looks now when I tell the girly "I'm going fishing" and there is no "for gars" tacked on the end. I did some Gina style the other day (from Ch 31 fishing show). Scale, gut, leave the head and beak on. Bend the whole thing around in a circle and spear the beak through the tail just before the fin. It will stay there. Marinade in a bit of olive oil, fresh herbs and lemon juice for 15 or so minutes then pan fry while drizzling the marinade over. Beautiful, flesh just pulls away from the backbone.

Tough to go past the lightly crumb, fresh bread and butter approach though. Been adding some sweet onion relish to that mix and it's a treat.

If I'm not workin I'm in for the next gar day. And I'll bring the onion relish

[Mordy]

Might try that Wokka
Sounds like Pilates for Garfish.
Or a page from a copy of the pop up Karma Sutra I had (really wish people would return books )

Years ago I would see all these pilates signs pop up over town,
thought they were a type of Middle Eastern take away, something with Turkish bread prehaps
Really should try them some time..................

Tony

[madfishman]

Ive had people round my place and cooked fresh gars served hot on buttered breadrolls and they dissapear real quick just ask cheater, frappa, yakker or wokka.

Ha has, he did, we did. Loved em. I get dirty looks now when I tell the girly "I'm going fishing" and there is no "for gars" tacked on the end. I did some Gina style the other day (from Ch 31 fishing show). Scale, gut, leave the head and beak on. Bend the whole thing around in a circle and spear the beak through the tail just before the fin. It will stay there. Marinade in a bit of olive oil, fresh herbs and lemon juice for 15 or so minutes then pan fry while drizzling the marinade over. Beautiful, flesh just pulls away from the backbone.

Tough to go past the lightly crumb, fresh bread and butter approach though. Been adding some sweet onion relish to that mix and it's a treat.

If I'm not workin I'm in for the next gar day. And I'll bring the onion relish

after marinade ,If you get another chance try shallow frying the whole gar, gutted and scaled though, until crispy, they are awsome bones and all...just one big crunchy fish stick, drizzled with lemon ...

[maverick]

Well then best I make an appearance and we smoke a couple of gars on the beach while we pack up.

[Ghurkin]

Well then best I make an appearance and we smoke a couple of gars on the beach while we pack up.

perhaps we could name that smoked seagars


seriously though, have you smoked gars before Maverick? any good?