General Chat

We've bought Hake today to have for tea. It was very difficult choosing, because all the fish looked so fresh and tasty.

Chips are par-boiled and ready for second cooking in medium hot oil then third cooking in very hot. Yum. But with the fish we are being a little bit good and just pan-frying it in a small amount of rapeseed oil. Would usually have peas, but bought some fresh broad-beans from the local greengrocer.

Flavor in a pangas ? G'arn.

The sale of "fresh" fish in the Uk is a near total disaster created by supermarkets, MasterChef and can't cook, won't cook. All the same a little effort will usually find real fresh fish. True it costs more than pangas.

We have recently bought for a reasonable price turbot, Dover sole, monkfish, plaice some from a local market. This time of year I catch my own mackerel.

"River cobbler" covers quite a range of Asian pangas none of which has either a good texture or flavor. One of my muckers is a Billingsgate fish merchant and he larfs at the amount of pangas they sell to restaurants and hotels which morph into something else on the menu.

Sure add this that and the other to your river cobbler but it will remain a dismal prospect for dinner. Best to nip down to the Prospect of Whitby at Wapping and enjoy a decent pint with yr dinner. When not overwhelmed with busloads of Chinese tourists their cooking is ok.

fwiw Tesco staff cannot fillet fish properly because elf n safety won't let them have the very sharp knives required. Maybe that is why cobblers for lunch have become popular. Duh.

:-)

This is a thread about dinner and not what is correct or not.

Sadly I do not live in Louisiana.

They are a load of old cobblers really and hardly the equal of a Dover sole or even a lemon sole whatever which way you cook them. They are not remotely to be compared with a Lousiana cat fish. Pangas are beloved of fish n chip shops which like to pass them off as plaice.

More to the point all the pangas imported to the UK come from fish farms in SE Asia which ( along with shrimp/prawn farming ) is screwing the environment big time.

http://www.dietmindspirit.org/2008/01/30/why-you-shouldnt-eat-this-fish-pangas-pangasius-vietnamese-river-cobbler-white-catfish-gray-sole/

:-0

Because it brings out the flavours - particularly if you use a citrus stuffing.

OneFootInTheGrave - boning is the part I really hate because it can take so long.

SueCar - I was thinking of getting some sea bass for over the weekend.

Tonight it is going to be sweet and sour lambs liver with Mediterranean roast veg. I've already used some of the liver to make a pâté with garlic, onion, tomato, various herbs and other stuff.

Why would you want to stuff a cobbler! :-D

:-D :-D :-D

If you came to mine, OFITG, I would only serve you Sea Bass or something equally fine. ;-)

SueCar - I will take your word for that, having given it a wide berth for 71 years I have no intention of eating it now :-)

All round Errol's for supper, I think. Yum.

Talking of bottom feeders and scavengers, I adore mackerel and eat it quite a lot. Guess it doesn't quite fit into the healthy lifestyle idea, but it's sooooooo tasty. ;-)

eRRolSheep - Having spent several years in my younger days as a waiter working part time in a couple of Edinburgh's top hotels and having to cook and bone it at the table before serving it, I can say I have never lost the knack ;-)

I had Dover sole the other night but it is a bit of a pain boning it.

I have tried smoked river cobbler but to be honest I am not that fond of it, my favourites are - haddock cutlets smoked or un-smoked, Dover Sole, Arbroath Smokies, and proper kippers with the bones in.

When I moved down here to Kent in 1988, I was surprised to see how popular some species of Mackerel were. I know there are several different species of Mackerel and that they are not found just in the seas around the UK, that said, up home in Scotland when I was a lad, I was brought up to believe that they were scavengers and were only fit for cat food, that view has stayed with me all my life, to this day I have never eaten Mackerel.

I never knew that.

I make a sauce and stuffing with yoghurt, apple, orange, olives, a little ginger, wholegrain mustard, tomato, fresh basil, courgette and a few other bits and pieces but leave it marinating for a couple of hours before baking it in foil for about half an hour.

Yes, I heard of someone on the tv who had a bad allergic reaction to that fish. I know it as Pangasius because we sometimes buy it very cheap frozen from our local Indian supermarket. It's much cheaper than cod but not as tasty.

In the UK all species of Pangasius may legally be described as river cobbler, basa, pangasius, panga, or any of these with the addition of "catfish" . . . this is a direct quote from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basa_fish

This may be useful to know if there is anyone out there who might need to worry about what they are eating. You also need to be careful when buying something described as 'fish' and chips, because it is very often Pangasius.

Well you can't beat that, then.
It is a shame about the cobbler because it is such a lovely delicate fish.

They seem to be able to eat most types of fish except that one. Seems strange. I can eat it and so can our other son. Never mind. Will have to make so with fish and chips from the chippy.

That's a shame - can they not eat any fish?

sounds nice Errol but it makes my husband and son very ill so i can't have it.

Lemon is du jour

now where do I get my shoes resoled?

:-S