Sea fish, eat fish

What's in a name? Quite a bit if you're wanting to cook the perfect fish dish, writes Elizabeth Latham.

It is very easy to get confused by the names given to fish.

I recently talked about this issue in relation to snapper (Nelson Mail, May 18, 2010, Fresh at NMIT). The name grouper can cause as much confusion.

Grouper or groper is the name given to a wide range of fish in a particular group that are similar but definitely not the same as each other.

The name is mostly used for fish from the serranidae family. Sea bass are included in this family along with many other genera of a subfamily called epinephelinae.

Just to confuse you even more, the groper that we buy in fish stores here is a completely different fish again – a "wreckfish" in fact, scientifically called polyprion oxygeneios.

The name wreckfish, interestingly enough, came about because the species is said to inhabit the sea depths around shipwrecks.

The Maori name for this fish is hapuku, which is easier to remember and is a lot prettier name.

Hapuku are found in New Zealand waters as well as those around South Australia and Chile.

They are large, heavy-bodied, slow-moving fish that have a big lower jaw and a gaping mouth that stretches back to behind their large eyes.

The big mouth and eyes are their most distinguishing features.

These big fin "fish of the deep" can weigh up to 100 kilograms and can live for many years.

It is a good idea to develop a list of fish that you become familiar with and which you learn to cook with confidence.

You need to acquire some knowledge about each variety to be able to use them in a range of dishes.

Hapuku should be one of the fish in your inventory.

It is a "round" fish, which means it has one fillet on each side of the spine.

It is firm fleshed so it lends itself well to being cut into steaks across the bone and barbecued or grilled. It is also excellent filleted and can be pan-fried or baked in a range of delicious recipes.

The fish remains succulent and moist with large thick flakes.

It is a culinary gem in fact, and compares with bass or blue nose in its qualities.

It has great flavour and few bones, which is a big plus in my book.

Al Brown in his new book Go Fish demonstrates how to gut and prepare hapuku.

He also extols the virtues of groper cheeks and groper belly – vastly underrated, he says, and points out that the belly contains the fat, which contains a lot of flavour. (We should all ask our fishmonger to remove the belly for us.)

It is best removed in one piece with the skin left on with its two undercarriage fins intact.

Al says it cooks beautifully by quick grilling in the oven and can be savoured plain or with a tasty salsa made of fresh herbs, green pepper, capers and shallots.

The latest development here is farm-raised hapuku, a new initiative of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa).

After six years of research and development, Niwa is market testing farmed hapuku.

In a recent cook-off comparing farmed and wild hapuku, the farmed variety won in both the use of raw fish in sashimi and also pan fried.

Remember that eating fish is really good for us.

Protein, minerals and omega 3 are all things we need to make us robust and healthy.

ROAST HAPUKU WITH FENNEL, BACON AND WHITE BEAN CASSOULET

White bean cassoulet

1/2 a carrot, finely diced
1 stick of celery, finely diced
1 small onion, finely diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
200g cooked haricot or cannellini beans
150g lean smoky bacon or pancetta
25ml stock (fish or chicken)
1 tsp dijon mustard
Handful chopped italian parsley

Saute the vegetables in the olive oil for about 10 minutes. Add the bacon and cook gently for a further five minutes.

Add stock and beans. Heat through well. Add mustard and fresh parsley.

Braised fennel

One large fennel bulb

200ml chicken stock

3 Tbsp olive oil

3 Tbsp lemon juice

lice the fennel bulb finely and saute in the olive oil for about 10 minutes before adding the stock and seasoning well. Cook until the fennel is tender and the stock reduced by half. Add lemon juice.

Hapuku

600g hapuku fillets.
Cut each fillet into four. Toss flour mixed with 1 Tbsp of paprika.
Heat 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil

in an oven-proof frypan and add the fish. Brown fish on both sides. Cook in a 180C oven about 10min, until fish is tender.

Serve on a bed of white beans and top with fennel.

HAPUKU WITH ROAST POTATOES, RED PEPPERS, TOMATOES AND ANCHOVIES

This is adapted from a recipe by Rick Stein. Serves 4.

1/2 tsp of saffron threads
700g of potatoes peeled and cut into cubes
4 plum tomatoes
50g anchovies
150ml chicken stock
2 large red peppers, deseeded, cut into strips and gently sauted in a little olive oil for about 20 minutes.
4 cloves garlic
Fresh marjoram and thyme (about 1 Tbsp of each)
75ml of olive oil
600g hapuka fillet

Soak the saffron in 1 Tbsp of very hot water. Parboil the potatoes for about 10 minutes. Drain and place in the bottom of a roasting pan. Scatter the tomatoes, anchovies, saffron water and stock. Sprinkle with the herbs, salt and lots of black pepper. Bake in a hot oven (200 degrees Celsius) for about 30 minutes. Rub the hapuku fillets with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on top of the hot vegetables with the red peppers covering the fish. Cook for another 15 minutes or until the fish is tender and just cooked, which depends on the thickness of the fillets.

BAKED HAPUKU

Serves 4 .

2 leeks
3 Tbsp olive oil
200ml vegetable stock
600g hapuku fillets
5 slices light rye bread
Handful parsley, marjoram or thyme
1 clove garlic
Salt and black pepper.

Saute leeks in oil until they soften. Add stock and simmer gently for about 15 minutes. Transfer leeks to a baking dish and add the fish.

Cover with breadcrumbs made from slices of bread processed with the herbs, garlic and lots of freshly ground black pepper and salt, and softened with 1-2 Tbsp olive oil. Oven-bake at 180C for about 15 minutes.

• Research by Elizabeth Latham and Serge Crottaz, of the School of Tourism, Hospitality and Wellbeing at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. Fresh at NMIT appears fortnightly in Lifestyle, exploring the local connection to food and beverages through the eyes of its hospitality educators.

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