The thought of raw Kahawai doesn't sound appealing to me but I've seen YouTube clips of people making and eating marinated raw fish Kahawai.

Anyone tasted marinated raw fish Kahawai?

Best after 24 hours of marinading overnight in the fridge.

OK thanks.  I'll leave it for 24 hours like you recommended.

Even better a day or two later. Nothing wrong with it at all.

Alan

Rozboon wrote: Yep, good as. Got to bleed the heck out of them first, and it pays to trim all the dark red fillet away unless you like it "fishy".

I only like the white flesh.  I"ll be sure to bleed it good.  Thanks

MJ wrote: Interesting you don't like the thought of raw kahawai. It makes excellent sashimi. I have served a plate of sashimi to friends which had snapper, john dory, trevally and kahawai sashimi on it. All agreed the kahawai was best. As usual - has to be very fresh - kahawai in particular doesn't like waiting to be used. If you are into sashimi, I suggest you try the kahawai. You might be pleasantly surprised.

I only eat it two ways - smoked and also nuked with milk, butter, salt and pepper.

I tried it pan fried once and it didn't taste great so I naturally assumed it wouldn't taste good raw.

That's impressive that Kahawai was favoured over snapper, john dory, and trevally by your friends.

This is good news.

Yeah 'Catchelot' mentioned to let it marinate for 24 hours.

pjc wrote: I just bleed straight away,fillet and cut out blood line,cube it and mix with lemon/onion/salt,pepper,chopped tomatoes leave for 12hrs or more and an hour before serving tip in a can of coconut milk. or just soak in lemon/onoin. left longer the better.

I thought raw fish was suppose to be marinated in coconut cream as well?

I've never tasted it marinated in lemon juice. 

Yeah a marinated raw fish recipe will be nice if you manage to find the recipe/s.

Bleeding a kahawai won't remove the dark coloured flesh and I remove that for cooking or raw fish.

 

Kahawai is great as raw sushimi with some soy & wasabi. If I marinate fish I only give it 20 mins or so in lemon juice, drain it and then leave it overnight in coconut cream with all the other goodies. It's still ok if you don't leave it overnight.

 

For fried fish the smaller fish are nicer IMO but they are all good if bled, chilled and fresh. Kahawai doesn't keep well.

Alan

I plan to do night fishing.  Do you think Kahawai wil be alright sitting in the bucket for a couple of hours at night while I'm fishing, or should I use ice in the chilli bin?

lingee wrote: smoked is great ,marinate in lemon over night then  drain off 60 % of juice add tomato a little chilli red onion ,and what you like ,coconut cream,add a bit of corriander.place in fridge for a few hours then lift out to it has lost that chill .serve with rice .rice with a little lime juice and corriander mixed together. that is afther rice has been cooked .ps add butter to the rice mix.cheers

Do you mean smoked Kahawai marinated in lemon?, or am I misreading that?

Yeah I suppose I can throw some ice in the chilli bin.  I only asked because the spots I plan on going to are a little bit of a walk hauling a chilli bin with ice around, but that's alright. 

Then again would also eat fresh with soy and wasabi. So many options! 

Also great gurnard bait with skin off fresh and big snapper like heads on smaller to medium specimens. Probably  bigger Kahawai heads if could find some of those huge snapper,  like they get down Mokau.

Interesting. I'm going to save that recipe.  Thanks

I've heard of Ceviche, I thought it originated in Chile but apparently it's origins are in Peru.

I love chillies but I've never tried chillies in marinated raw fish.  I can see it working

I've tried smoked fish(Kahawai) in pies once long ago and it was delicious

My favourite smoked fish is Gemfish followed by Tarakihi.  I can just imagine those in fish pies....yum!!!

I forgot Kahawai can be used as bait as well.  I'll know what to do now with any Kahawai I decide not to eat.

If anyone is interested, here is a fish burger cook up from my favourite YouTube channel, the guy is a local from my area.  I thought "toasting" the bread rolls was a good idea.  Cooking starts at 6:40...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRUHze-nYXE" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRUHze-nYXE

Fully agree re kokoda or ceviche. 2-4 hours soaking in the lemon or lime juice - then drained - is fine, in my experience. I used the sachets of fresh lime or lemon juice from the veggie section of the supermarket. Always goes in my box of stuff to take away on fishing holidays. My tinkering of the common recipe is to use a couple of good dollops of sweet chilli sauce in the mixture (added at the same time as the coconut cream etc). I find that's a nicer balance - sometimes adding chilli, red onion etc to something that's soaked in lemon for hours is a bit tart to my taste. Adding cucumber, red capsicum and tomato to the mix provides a nice balance too. Served on crackers or in a bowl - delicious.

Kahawai is also good in two ways not mentioned above.

1. fried in a pan, then when cool broken into pieces for Thai or classic Kiwi fish cakes - about half and half with cooked and smashed up potato, herbs such as chopped mint, and cooked diced onion, sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. You can crumb the outside with panko if you feel like it, or just flour.

2. diced in a green or red Thai curry (packet from the supermarket is fine) - the latter with diced banana as well. Sensational if you like fish curries.

We are pretty spoiled as a nation if we turn up our noses at kahawai, which many other countries would love to have on their fish menu. 

Love raw kahawai,especially medium size ones. 

 Anything to eat raw ,i clean,wash in salt water ,get on ice quick.

I just cut thinly,cover with small amount of Tamari soy sauce. Tamari is wheat free. Be careful to get a properly brewed one.

Eat pretty well straight away with a dash of wasabi. Crisp and crunchy.

A couple of days in fridge kahawai can start to get a bit stronger. Not nearly as good.

Assume this is oil in fish begining to go rancid.

Trevelly and snapper also very good raw.

I prefer lime to lemon juice, but we do have a really good lime tree. That plus red onion, chilli cut up fine for a few hours.  Nom nom.  Its a ceviche recipe or variant.

I have a book with 100 raw fish recipes which I bought a year or more ago in Luxembourg.  Its in French.  Haven't done many of them yet.  Any, to be honest.  Pictures look good though

Quite different to sashimi

Hey mate, what's the name of that book you got from Luxembourg?

Excellent recipe, I'll be saving it.

Curried Kahawai eh? I'll find a recipe for curried fish.  I've got to try that to.

Please

Grunta wrote: Frames and heads make great stock for a chowder.

Another great idea!!

1. Snapper VS Kahawai

2. Snapper VS Trevally

3. Snapper VS Kingi

Interesting that you put snapper last.

Rozboon wrote: Then I'd take the front section of the top loin from a Kingfish (ideally in that 80cm-90cm kinda range)

Very detailed. 

 

Thanks, I always get that wrong

This one's for https://www.fishing.net.nz/fishing-advice/seafood-recipes/kokoda-recipe-with-kahawai/" rel="nofollow - marinated raw fish courtesy of Sam Mossman

And here's a great pre-dinner snack or even a main course if you so desire:

Kingfish and snapper are great options, in fact any fish. It keeps all the moisture in and they've been a real favourite at our place. Thanks to Bea Bagnall for the inspiration!

Saa....shee....mee

Sa..sh..imi

Sashimi

OK I got it.  

Thanks

Same. Our Japanese needs improving

Great information. I'll keep this in mind next time I pull in a kingi.

That is a very solid test.  9 in 10 in favor of Kahawai.

Love Jalapenos but these really give me a sore stomach.  I suspect the feta might neutralize the sore stomach effect in the same way low fat yogurt helps neutralize the effects of hot chili peppers. Just a theory.  I guess there is only one way for me to test that theory.  Thanks for the recipes.

 

Here it is.  Some nice looking recipes: mostly fish, some other seafood, some meat, some veg some drinks, weirdly enough...

I consider raw fish to be just that. Raw. Accompanied with a little soy sauce and wasabi it is very tasty indeed. I call that sashimi. So what are the other things that resemble sashimi and it's variants called and what separates those similar dishes?

Blue koheru makes pretty decent sashimi also. Definitely nothing wrong with Kahawai though.

Regardless of species is all in the prep. Have seen countless people who supposedly know what they are doing cut into the gut cavity while filleting. Also stupid things like washing the fish or fillets in water especially fresh water which just helps bacteria to grow.

I always try to take the fillet off as clean and dry as possible, no blood, water, gut juice etc and no need to wash.

I agree with Smudge, and jac you have forgotten Whale meat on the Japanese menu also.

Last time in Japan I went to a old real well known family owned Sashimi Bar. Didn’t see any whale and I heard no one eats it and it’s stored in huge warehouse freezer still till they know what to do with it. Gov tried to make school kids eat it for school lunches which didn’t go down well.

But I did eat raw Squid sashimi, also puffer fish and the jellyfish sashimi was interesting. I just ate it all. I survived the poison fish, it wasnt that great, I’d much prefer the Kawhai. Now shhh don’t let the Japanese know about how good Kawhai is...

Any kahawai  under 45cm has its throat cut and placed in a bucket of seawater to bleed out for 5 mins. Then sliced up and eaten right then,dipped in soy sauce.

Also Blue mackeral are delicious eaten this way.   . Highly under rated fish. 

Do you speak French?

I didn't do French at school myself but I'm hoping I can find a way around that problem.  I'll order one from Amazon.

Muppet wrote: Kingfish belly is the best sashimi of our inshore fish followed close by trevally I reckon.

Duly noted. I'll have to put out some livies when the Kingis come back into the harbour.

I don't regard fish marinated in lemon juice as raw fish either because it is technically cold cooked.

Sashimi is indeed simply raw fish, Japanese soy sauce and wasabi. Nothing else.

I've seen people actually cook the fish and put it in coconut cream with all the usual stuff and call it marinated raw fish. Some people have really butchered the meaning of marinated raw fish.

Before coconut cream was introduced to New Zealand and marinated raw fish in coconut cream became a thing, the old school way of doing marinated raw fish was simply raw fish in water with sea salt and lemon juice added.  The raw fish wasn't soaked in lemon juice to cold cook it, it was simply added to the water. 

One way I use to do it was cut the Kahawai into cubes and put it in a bowl of milk then add butter or margarine with salt and pepper.  Nuke it for about 1 minute 30 seconds and eat it with butter and bread. Delicious!!

I usually wash the fillets in sea water but I'll be taking your advice and not wash the fillets if I can fillet the fish cleanly enough.  Thanks

I bet it does taste nice but I got high cholesterol so no deep fried anything for me

taurangatroutmaster wrote: Cholesterol is extremely important for brain function. Don't believe everything they tell u about that.

Reel Deal wrote: So many less experienced or closed minded fishos treat it like a rubbish fish maybe harking back to the old days when you could hardly get your lines through them to catch anything else. So ended up with a heap of thrashing Kawhai in the sun to take home in a potatoe sack and over cook to eat and complain the fish quality. Ha.

I remember the days when we would throw snapper straight into the fish bin without killing em first.  No ice in the fish bin and and fish bin baking in the hot summer sun. 

I was only a 8,9,10 year old kid at the time but questioned (although not out loud) the whole thing.  Leaving the snapper to slowly die seemed inhuman to me, and letting em bake in the summer sun didn't seem right. I wondered if all that had to do with the snapper not tasting as nice as it potentially could taste. 

As soon as they come aboard, iki them straight to the brain (very easy as they have a translucent skull)   then bury them in ice for 12+ hours to let them set, and then when filleting you trim off the red meat.  I'll do this to kahawai after having them in the icebin for 3 days (draining off the water in the bottom morning and night).  the other KEY thing is you need to eat them within 12-18 hours of them being filleted.

They make great sashimi, but not at good as Koheru (if you haven't tried them, you should).   They are also great panfried, battered etc etc etc, but they have to be treated right.  To get the best out of all fish, they need to be treated right.  

 I gave some snapper to someone 2 weeks ago.  It had spent 3 days in my ice bin, I filleted it, then it spent 6 days in their fridge before they were able to eat it and they said it was some of the best fish they've ever eaten.....

Look after it from time of catch and you'll be suprised at what is great eating and how long it will last....  Lots of people do not look after their fish......

 

Amen