Crispy Skined Barramundi in Balsamic Reduction

Alot of people I talk to say they don't like fish.. I'll bet my tackle box it's because there not eating fresh fish. Freash fish smelles & tastes like the essence of the sea. Anything beyond a day old, you end up with a smell like a hookers knickers after a bucks night. Probly tastes about the same to!
Same day fish can be a bit pricey, as a result most Ausies being tight asses tend to go for the stale stuff. The smell aloan will turn even the hungryest buggers off a feed o fish...
So if it means you can only afford fish once in a while; Go for the freash stuff. If you still can't afford it, buy a fishing rod get out there and get your own...

The beer of choice for this meal is the Erdinger dark bock. A dark roasted wheat malt haveing a chocalate and nutty esspresso start with a late Amorillo hoped fruity finish. This classic dark German needs to be pored allowing a generous 5 cm head. Sedement distubance opitional but recomended for a more rounded flavor.


Crispy skin snapper with a balsamic reduction on a bed tomato & cucumber with a side of lamb coffta!

If you have the paticence to put up with my spelling I would like to share some thoughts on cooking fillet of fish.

On most ocations I would recomend cooking meat over hot coals. But fillet of fish is very delicate in texture and flavor. It can easley fall apart when turning on a grill. Also direct contact with head and flame can over power the taste of some fish so you get nothing but BBQ flavor and nothing else. So this time I can recomend useing a hot plate, so long as it's super clean. I'll even go so far as to say a non stick pan is OK, only because you need the cleanest surface possible so as to avoid roge flavor contamination.

So now we got all this I'm going to asume that you are either useing a non stick pan, or a stainless steel hot plate that has been scrubed to within an inch of it's life. Rub the sikn side of the fish with salt flakes and cracked pepper. Heat your pan to allmost smokeing. Give a quick swigg of olive oil to aid heat transmission and place fish skin side down in the center of the pan. If your pan is nice and hot you should see a contraction of the skin, that how you know it'll be nice and crispy. Assumeing your fillet is about 2.5cm thick allow about 3 minutes on the skin side before turning. Give another 2 minutes and your done. Or, if your fish does'nt have any skin. Add salt flakes and cracked pepper to a hand full of flour and dust the fish with it. Shake off the execess, and cook in a moderate pan with a splash of olive oil for 3 minutes a side.