Sea fishing and the eating experience - Raising the bar

gale-at-sea
Humphrey Gale
Wed 27 Mar 2013 09:35
Lat 08: 59 S Long 110: 02 March 27th 03.00 am

We had just brought our bowls of freshly made ceviche on deck, sat down with a can of cold drink for a late lunch after a morning of adjusting spinnaker poles and ......bang... the air exploded with a high pitched screech....the now familiar sound of the rachet on the fishing reel exploding as yet another fish has taken the hook and the fight to get it back on board has started... and this was fighter... a 7lb tuna as it turned out. I now have the aft deck of the boat neatly laid out so everything is to hand ( no rummaging around for the right kit in the bag) the gaff, the gloves, the rolling pin, the alcohol in squeezy bottle, a line to secure the fish by the tail, the bucket, the filletting board, all able to be released quickly when needed. The fish came neatly up on board with the gaff, a towel over its head, alcohol in the gills ( much less blood on the deck than bashing it with a rolling pin to kill it), a line tied to its tail and then, for tuna only, 6 small cuts in the flesh; below the gills; behind the dorsel fin; and near the tail on both sides and back in the water streaming behing the boat to allow the blood to drain - and there is a lot of blood. This is about improving the quality of the meat the way the professionals recommend. The principle is to allow the heart to still pump - hence don't kill it with a blow to the head - the blood out of the body for about 10 minutes. Then it is back on board. Gut it, skin it, then fillet it. 2 from each side and we have 4 lovely fillets of tuna neatly trimmed and ready to be put in the freeezer to cool them down quickly. When I fillet them, I can feel the flesh is warm close to the backbone and it is this that is said to gently start to cook the flesh, which is why getting it to the cooler is important for the quality of the meat.

Menu for supper tonight was a tuna tartar ( finely chopped red onion, seasame oil, soy sauce) followed by seared tuna steaks, cooked rare, drizzled with sesame oil and some sweet soy sauce and warm boiled potatoes in a an oil and vinegar dressing.... not bad eh!

Post script... and we did get back to our, by now, very late lunch after landing the fish. New cold drinks were required out of the fridge and the now, warm ones, unopened, put back for chilling

Peter, I think the image of the fishing reel from grab bag 2 for the feature photo