First taste of Jade Perch

savarin

We had our first taste of Jade perch last night.
Unfortunately not from our system (still to be built) but to see if we liked the taste.
I mean, if we dont like the taste of the fish then why bother to grow them.
So as not to disguise the taste in any way it was just a simple descale and gut, dry, dip in flour and shallow fry in a smear of oil with no seasoning.
From all the info available I assumed that the oil would pour out of the fish but such was not the case.
I cooked them till the flesh had just set to make peeling the fillets off easy.
The flesh stayed firm but not hard, sweet, had a vague (very vague) hint of basil taste (from them eating it maybe??) and no oily taste as some have reported.
The earthiness I was expecting was less than I can taste in trout which was a nice bonus.
I served them with sweet potato tops sweated in butter, garlic and fine chopped anchovy as a seasoning, the two together was excellent.
All in all we were very impressed with the taste and the texture and will definitely be going ahead with Jade perch.

Journeyman

The only time I ever had Jade perch was years back in Kiama - it was steamed with a basil sauce - I recall enjoying it a lot and was puzzled about 'oily' comments I have seen. I just figured the people complaining must have used too much oil - like cooking fresh salmon - if you use even a little more than just enough to prevent it sticking, it seems oily.

Jaymie

nice

where did you get them from?

blind freddie

Hi Saverin, we eat a few Jades here and there. I sometimes fillet them and pan fry them. I have often found quite a bit of fat on the fillets but I would expect nothing else.

My fish are very well fed fat little buggers (a bit like myself realy). Most native fish will pack fat on in the good seasons to get them through the lean times (also a bit like me, but we dont get many lean times around here).

Even though I remove the visible fat i always notice a bit more oil in the pan after cooking them. I cooked the last 4 fillets in a non stick pan with a very light spray of olive oil. no flour or crumbs on them, when they were cooked there was about 10ml of oily fat left in the pan. I have saved it to add to my burley mix next time I go fishing.

savarin

Jaymie wrote:

nice

where did you get them from?

Amazon Aquariums in Crocodile court off Ingham rode , just down from Webb Drive.
Did I say how much we loved the taste?
He did say they love eating basil so I wonder how feeding different herbs will affect the taste?
I see more experiments coming on

orcy2010

my Jades are oily as all get out. guess I have the wrong type of Jade Perch

blind freddie

savarin wrote:

Jaymie wrote:

nice

where did you get them from?

Amazon Aquariums in Crocodile court off Ingham rode , just down from Webb Drive.
Did I say how much we loved the taste?
He did say they love eating basil so I wonder how feeding different herbs will affect the taste?
I see more experiments coming on

Interesting Ill have to try feeding the fish some herbs, we have friends that knock over the odd pig. They normally feed them up on apples for a few days and get them drunk on apple cider at the end. The pork definately has a sweat apple taste to it.

Jaymie

hmm, I didn't realise they had them there.

savarin

The belly was chockers with fat, I fried that afterwards and it rendered down completely to oil with just a tiny bit of membrane.
I was also surprised that there was no fishy smell when cooking it.

Tallman

We ate Jade for the first time on the weekend. Fillets coated in flour and fried with the skin on. Wife, kids and I all thought it was lovely. We didn't find the flesh tasted oily at all. Like savarin I found the belly full of fat stores.

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Charlie

Most AP fish species develop a large fat deposit in the stomach due to the high protein diet and limited exercise area. Your dinner looks very yummy!

BuiDoi

Charlie wrote:

Most AP fish species develop a large fat deposit in the stomach due to the high protein diet and limited exercise area......!

Would a completely round tank, and a circulating pump, cause them to swim near constantly or get dizzy.. and thus reduce the fat build up... I wonder..
Lean n Mean..
..
.

mattyoga

Just wondering - what do jade perch taste like compared to silver perch? I've been a bit underwhelmed by the taste of silver perch - seem best cooked with lots of other strong flavors, though wondering if the jades flesh has more merit as an 'eat unflavored' fish?

The barra I had from the AP tasted amazing, just wondering where a jade sits between the silver and barra taste continuum?

katmac

I remember reading in one of the BYAP magazines that Jades because of their super high omega oils content, some people didn't like them - maybe it means you will! There's a little snippet from the BYAP website here:

Quote:

Jade Perch
This native Australian fish is worth a special mention here, as it has the highest levels of omega three oils of any fish species in the world. In fact it’s so high in omega three oils that growers are trying to breed the oil out of them, they are trying to breed a less oily fish because they’ve found people don’t like the high oil content.

They require warm water and consume an omnivorous diet. Very well suited to an aquaponic system, they grow quickly and fingerlings are readily available in warmer areas.

But.... I thought they were a restricted species for WA?

ccBear

As Freddie said all native fish store fat in the good times to get them through the lean winter period. I could go down now and pull a 800g jade out and there would be over 150g of at and gut with 80% being fat.

What I do not like about them is when I hit a goblet of fat that puts me of. Otherwise they are a excellent fish and we often do them with equal orange and lemon with a bit of chilli will be ordering another 100 later in the year. Cheers

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