| Red Gurnard | | Print | |
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This fish is also a sustainable choice as they are plentiful in Cornwall with very few vessels able to catch them. The best time of year to catch the red gurnard is from August through to January, but we do see them all year round. They need a lot of looking after and we do this by only towing our nets for short periods of time so that the fish keeps its texture and its bright red appearance. The gurnard is a bottom feeding fish; it uses its leg like pectoral fins to search the seabed for its food. We use a rope connected to our nets to herd the fish towards the net, we do this by lightly brushing the seabed causing a sand cloud thus driving the Gurnards towards our net. The Gurnard was a favourite with many older Cornish people and our Great Granny used to call them a Hellick; she would love to eat a hellick and wouldn’t swap it for any other fish. Storing the catchWhen the catch comes aboard the Crystal sea we sort then gut the fish, then we cool the fish a quickly as possible by dipping them in slushed ice sea water to bring the tempreture down as quickly as possible to ensure the fish retains its just from the sea look. We then send the fish down to our re-fridgerated hold where we place each fish in a box on a layer of ice and when each box is full it has a layer of ice placed on top then it is safely secured in the hold. We keep our fish hold at a constant plus 1 degree Celsius to ensure the fish arrives in the freshest condition for auction at the market. |
This firecracker red fish is a very underrated fish indeed, for many years it was overlooked by many chef’s as it proved to be a difficult fish to fillet but I am glad to say it has become much more popular and the fish filliters have become quite adept at filleting them.