Girl VS. Fish
Of all the Adventures I take on, on an almost daily basis, this one has to be the most challenging by far: the scaling, gutting, and cooking of a whole fish.
As you might recall, upon our visit to the local greenmarket, my beautiful and incredibly convincing 4 year old asked me to buy a fish. A whole fish…guts and all.
Last time I scaled a fish was probably as a tween in the Dominican Republic. I kinda enjoyed the scaling part, seemed pretty simple, no brainer. Avoid the fins, as they can pierce the skin, but other than that…no big deal. The gutting…I guess I must have blanked that part out because there I was paying for a nice size blue fish, to the sounds of joy from my 3 and 4 year old.
Get home.
Now what.
Damn.
So today. I finally did it. I rolled back my sleeves, as the little ones pulled up chairs from the dinning room table, and I began to scale.
Ok. Well. Ideally, scaling a fish is done OUTSIDE. But this being Manhattan, and my not wanting to have to go to the fire escape like some loon with a fish, a board, and a knife, I just did it on my counter top. Lucky me, not too many flying scales, but I am sure I will be finding some here and there during the next couple of days.
Then the cutting. Ok. Again. Not good, but not too bad. Except cutting the anus part out, which you don’t have to do, but I rather not eat fish ass. Seriously. Cut up, no prob.
Until it’s time to gut it. Here is where I thought this dead fish would have beaten me. I tried cutting with shears, starting with the gills (which you should always cut out because otherwise it could really sour the taste of the fish). Boys at this point were mesmerized. “Ewwwww!” “Ooooooh!” “Ewwwww!” But the other stuff…yuck.
Best way is to just go in there with your fingers and pull out, but believe it or not, I couldn’t. I could not put my fingers in the fish. So, this lead to a nice, prolonged, gutting session. My boys became bored and left, my husband having returned from a meeting and seeing the bloody mess, couldn’t believe I was doing it, and I was close to quitting and ordering pizza.
Oh fish, you almost did me in.
But I didn’t quit and stayed the course and Viola! A poorly cut, but well gutted fish.
Season with salt, rosemary, some olive oil, pepper, lemon juice, and some paprika for flare in the oven it went…here is the result.
I was a bit skeptical about trying the fish. Something about getting so close and personal made it not that appetizing right away. I guess I am one who is best served her food, no questions asked.
Even the boys were a bit hesitant.
“Ewwwww! Take fish away!” squirmed the 3 year old.
“What happened to the fishy’s eyes?” asked the 4 year old.
“Is it good?” asked my husband who wouldn’t try it before I did.
Turns out it was more than good, it was close to fab. Even the boys got over it and gave it a taste and liked it!
In this Adventure of Girl VS. Fish, this girl won. I conquered the fish…albeit a dead one, but you know, baby steps. In the end this was what was left.
Food Network, I am ready for my close up now.
I still can’t believe you did it! It was yummy…even Aidan liked it after he got over the eyes still being in the fish!
You are my hero. Every time my hubby went fishing, he asked me if I wanted to try gutting a fish. Every single time I said hell no and will every time. I don’t think I can ever do that. Nope, not for me. I’ll definitely show hubby this post. he’ll be amazed to know that it was a girl who cut & gutted the fish..LOL
When I was in college, I worked at my aunt/uncle’s fish camp. I learned how to clean and fillet rainbow trout and channel catfish. (Catfish are horrible since you have to skin them and their spiny fins can easily puncture your skin.) Here I thought I was learning a skill a future husband would be thrilled about, only to marry a man who hates seafood and moved me to Florida. But, I can still fillet a trout where you won’t find a single bone.
Your fish looks delicious! I prefer to cook mine whole too.
AWESOME. I told you it would probably be just like riding a bike!
LOL! That’s incredible Tara. I am not great at the fillet part…and the fish was really tasty!