Dwayne barbecued the marlin fillets, while I threw together a salad of mixed lettuce leaves, ruby grapefruit, thinly sliced fennel, red onion, cucumber, tomato and spring onions.
For the dressing I used dill, lime and a little olive oil. Simple, yet really enjoyable.
This meal was made with a fresh catch while we were anchored at Hope Island, on the Great Barrier Reef. It was a few days out of Cairns and we still had some fresh vegetables from our shopping trip that we needed to use. The green beans were on their last days so, as it often happens on a boat, what we decided to cook for dinner was determined by the veg we had and what needed to be eaten first.
Dwayne caught, cleaned and cut the spanish mackerel into cutlets. He then barbequed the cutlets while I made a salsa.
For the salsa I diced tomato, kalamata olives, red onion, anchovy, chilli, capers and added a little olive oil.
The beans, which were begging to be cooked, were blanched in boiling water for a minute or two and set aside. I sautéed a little garlic in butter and tossed the beans and some chopped pistachio nuts through it.
We enjoyed a delicious meal of BBQ mackerel topped with the salsa and served with the beans on the side. We love mackerel… don’t think we’ll ever get sick of it!
We are still working our way through the marlin and still trying out different ways to cook it. This particular day I thought I’d do a marlin filling to wrap in cabbage leaves and bake. While discussing this meal with Dwayne, he came up with the idea to do it with the same flavours the Fijians do their Palusumi (Palusumi is usually lamb mince or corned beef with taro leaves).
When we were in Fiji, after having a delicious meal of palusumi, I asked the cook what goes into the dish. I was told it was ginger, garlic, onion, coconut milk.
So this is what I did…
I finely chopped garlic, ginger, onion and sautéed it for a few minutes until ingredients softened . I put ¾ of the mix into a bowl with some finely chopped marlin (not blended). I added some finely chopped spinach (I had frozen spinach) and enough coconut milk to make a moist mix (not too sloppy).
I mixed the left over coconut milk with the other ¼ of the garlic, ginger and onion mix and set aside.I blanched the cabbage leaves for a minute or two and then wrapped a couple of spoonfuls of the marlin mixture up in the leaves.
I put the cabbage rolls in a baking dish and topped it with the reserved coconut milk mixed with the ginger, garlic and onion.
I baked it in the oven for about ½ hour. It was really yummy, Dwayne loved it… but he always does!
Dwayne requested this; it is one of his favourites…. although it’s hard to keep up with Dwayne’s favourites, because he is constantly saying “that’s my favourite”! Can anyone have that many favourites…? or is he really, really, smart and uses flattery to get me to go to the effort of making fancy food… on a boat! Clever man lol.
I have made this often for an entrée at dinner parties, however I have always used yellow fin tuna. I have created this dish using Japanese flavours but serve it on a food I connect with Italy. Anyhow, we think they go well together.
To cure the marlin: I made a mix of salt, sugar, crush peppercorns and crush coriander seeds, which I rubbed into, and all over, the marlin fillet. I spread out a piece of glad wrap and pour a tablespoon of gin on it, then added the marlin and topped it with another tablespoon of gin. I wrapped the marlin up in the glad wrap and put it in a Tupperware container and into the fridge. I usually put it in the fridge to cure for around eight hours, however this time the marlin sat curing in the gin for 48 hours before I cooked it.
To make the polenta chip: I cooked the polenta as per instructions on the pack. Once it was cooked I lined a tray with plastic wrap and poured the polenta in to it and smooth the surface. I set this aside to cool. Once cooled I cut polenta into serving portions and place on a baking tray and baked in the oven at 200c for 10mins.
To cook the marlin: I coated the marlin fillet with sesame seeds. Heated two tablespoons of olive oil in a fry pan and seared the marlin on both side for a minute each and then, using tongs, I lifted the marlin and sear the other sides of fillet, holding the marlin with the tongs, for 10 – 30 seconds, until all sides of tuna are seared.
To serve: I made a dressing of sesame oil and soy sauce, which I drizzled across the plate. I then added a dob of wasabi to the plate. I sliced the marlin into serving portions. Place two polenta chips on each plate and placed a slice of marlin on each. I topped the marlin with a little of the sesame/soy mix and served.
I’d usually like to get a little fancy with a garnish of petite herbs or some such thing but hey,… I live on a boat and was anchored off Digby Island QLD when Dwayne decided he wanted this dish. So I didn’t get very fancy lol.
We caught a couple of mackerel just out from Undine Cay. The first, which I used for this recipe, was a spotted mackerel which Dwayne filleted. We arrived at Hope Island in time for lunch so I cooked up a couple of fillets and served the with a salsa style salad. This was simple and very delicious.
To make the salad I mixed diced pineapple, tomato, red onion, red chilli with corn kernels and the juice of one lime.
I coated the mackerel fillets with Cajun spices and fried them in canola oil.
The Cajun spice and the fruity flavour of the salad were amazing together. Yummo!
I served this the night Sarah and Joanna came to visit us in Airlie beach .
I made a yellow curry sauce with Mae Ploy’s yellow curry paste, finely chopped ginger and garlic, finely sliced kaffir lime leaves, a little fish stock and coconut milk. I simmered the sauce for 20mins, adding water when necessary, until the flavours had developed at which time I added the mackerel cutlets.
I serve the curry with basmati rice, blanched snow peas and a little tomato.
I made these yummy Asian flavoured rissoles with the seemingly never ending supply of marlin we have from the marlin we caught earlier in the year. For anyone new to the blog that wants to know more about “The Marlin” check out The Marlin
These rissoles were made by accident! They actually came about when, having made a filling for wantons, I found the wanton wrappers had mould on them so I did rissoles instead. Not sure how that occurred since the packet was unopened and in date until March 2015…? anyway the wonton wrappers were thrown in the bin and I cooked the filling as rissoles.
The rissoles were simple and tasty..
I blended marlin, ginger and garlic and fish sauce. Then I added finely chopped dried shitake mushroom (soaked in boiling water) and finely shredded cabbage.
I shaped the marlin mix into rissoles and shallow fried them in a fry pan.
I served them with sweet chilli sauce but in the end we decided they were delicious without the sauce and served with a simple salad. They were really tasty. Bon appetite!
Marlin, marlin, marlin! We are still eating marlin regularly and surprisingly I am not running out of interesting ways to cook it. I have a few more ideas to try out yet, but this pie is another one of my favourites. Marlin is a firm fish and it gave this pie a real meatiness.
Here is what I did…
I sautéed one finely diced carrot, one stick of celery finely diced, one onion finely diced and one rasher of bacon diced. Once the veggies started to soften I added one cup of fish stock*and further cooked the veggies as I simmered the fish stock to reduce it by half.
Then I added 200ml of cream (longlife which I always have on the boat) and the cubed marlin. Stirred to combine all the ingredients and then pour it into two deep ramekins.
I topped the ramekins with pastry and popped them in the oven.
The marlin does not take long to cook, so as soon as the pastry was puffed and browned I served the pies. They were really, really yummy!
*Note: I used fish stock cubes that I picked up at an Asian grocer, Ikan Bilis, the brand is Knorr. They are very strong and worked perfectly with this pie.
More often than not, I cook dinner with only the ingredients on board i.e. no trip to the shop to get lettuce or tomato. If I want to make a salad it will often consist of tinned beans or quinoa and any vegetable I may have on board. Our fridge is not very big so I cannot often get veggies that take up a lot of space such lettuce, or veggies that damage easily. I do however sprout my own beans and seeds.
On this particular day in Broken Bay we were tucked away in Jerusalem Bay enjoying the seclusion when I had a hankering for a fresh salad with my dinner.
A search through my fridge revealed a carrot, half a zucchini, finger limes and a container of freshly sprouted mung beans. We also had oranges and some mustard seeds sprouting which were ready to use.
So here is what I did.
I made a salad with grated carrot and zucchini. Added peeled and chopped orange, mung beans, mustard sprouts and the pulp from one finger lime.
I served my salad topped with barbequed blue fin tuna (caught in South Australia) and finished it with a drizzle of dressing made with orange juice, Dijon mustard and olive oil. Garnished with more finger lime. Yum!
Note: Finger Lime is a delicate rainforest tree that naturally occurs as an understorey tree in SE Queensland and Northern NSW.
Sailing between Port Stephens and Coffs Harbour in NSW we caught a blue marlin. It was amazing! After two hours of reeling him in and letting him run, the game finally ended with us the victors and a freezer full of marlin. Read about The Marlin!
We have 55 bags of frozen marlin steaks, around ten bags of belly flaps and other off cuts to use in curries, pies etc and with the last of the meat that we got off the marlin (the scraps on the bones), I made pickled marlin.
Pickled Marlin
I boiled white vinegar, brown sugar, mustard, fennel and coriander seeds, peppercorns, garam masala and chilli. I added sliced onion to the vinegar mix after I had taken it off the heat. I then set the vinegar and onions aside for about 1 hour until the mix had cooled. The final step was to simply add the marlin. Viola! Pickled marlin.
Marlin Numus
For this pickled fish, I simply mixed white vinegar, soy, lime juice, chilli, garlic and brown sugar. I then layered the marlin and sliced onion in a container and poured the vinegar mix over it. Done and very delicious if I do say so myself!
Gourmet from the galley! 