Serves 4

4 x 150g Sea Mullet fillets, skin off, bones removed

Couscous & lemon wedges to serve

Chermoula

1 bunch coriander

1 bunch flat-leaf parsley

6 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

Sea salt to taste

2 tablespoons ground cumin

2 tablespoons sweet paprika

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

100ml lemon juice

250ml extra virgin olive oil

To make the Chermoula, finely chop coriander, parsley leave and garlic together in a food processor.  Add remaining ingredient and mix well.

Place each Sea Mullet fillet on a sheet of baking paper or blanched banana leaf.  Spread the Chermoula over the fish.  FOld the paper to enclose the fish in a parcel and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Place parcels on a baking tray and cook in a hot oven 200C for 8-10 minutes or until flesh flakes when tested with a fork.

Notes - Chermoula fillets can also be cooked (either directly or wrapped in parcels ) on a preheated lightly oiled barbeque, fry-pan or char-grill plate for 2 minutes on one side, turn over and cook a further 1-2 minutes until flesh flakes easily when tested with a fork.

For more fish recipes vsit www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au

serves 4 as an entre

400g Pink Ling fillets

kaffir lime leaves or lemon leaves

1 cup thick yoghurt

2 tablespoons prepared horseradish sauce

2 tablespoons chopped chives

1.5 tablespoons lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Lemon wedges to serve

Cut the Pink Link into 4cm pieces.  Place a lime or lemon leaf on both sides of fish pieces.

Combine yoghurt, horseradish, chives, lemon juice and salt and papper.  Set aside.

Heat a large frying pan, grill plate or barbeque to moderately high heat.  Brush well with oil and cook Pink Ling for 2 minutes.  Carefully turn using a spatula and tongs and cook a further 1-2 minutes or until just cooked through.

Serve fish with horseradish yoghurt and lemon wedges.

Notes - Fish could also be steamed in a bamboo steamer.

Mayonnaise or sour cream can be used instead of yoghurt.  Wasabi can be an alternative to horseradish.  Other suitable seafood you could try for this recipe include prawns, blue-eye Trevalla, Tuna, Marlin, Swordfish, Kingfish, Salmon and Ocean Trout

For more fish recipes, visit www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au

Serves 4

750g Loligo Squid, cleaned (see notes below)

1 tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns

2 teaspoons sea salt

1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes, medium heat

1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns

Salad ingredients

2 cups finely shredded carrot

1/4 cup finely shredded daikon (white radish) or small red radish

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 teaspoon caster sugar

generous pinch of sea salt

Soak shredded daikon and carrot in separate bowls of chilled water for at least 15 minutes

Make salad dressing by combining vinegar, sugar and salt, stirring until sugar dissolves.

Heat Szechuan peppercorns, salt, chilli and black peppercorns in a dry frying pan over a moderate heat until salt is lightly browned, stirring constantly to prevent burning.  Pound to a fine powder in a mortar and pestle.

Drain carrot and daikon well.  Toss together with salad dressing.

Pat the Squid dry with paper towel.  Heat a large frying pan, grill plate or barbecue.  Lightly oil barbecue and cook Squid over a high heat for 1-2 minutes, turning once.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper mix.  Serve with salad.

To prepare squid, grasp the arms and pull firmly to separate head from tube trying to not break the ink sac as the ink stains.  Cut below the eyes and discard head and guts, push beak (mouth) out from between the arms.  Remove quill, peel skin off by grasping side fins and peeling aroudn the tube.  Wash and use tentacles.

Cut tubes open, lay out flat and wipe the inside clean with paper towel.  Slice into strips or score with diagonal cuts to make a diamond patter, then cut into larger chunks.  Trim any hard suckers from the tentacles or drop legs into boiling water for 60 seconds.  Drain and strip suckers off with the back of a knife or with paper towel.  Cut think legs in half lengthways.

Notes - Lare Squid can benefit from being tenderised by gently hitting with a meat mallet before cooking.  Salt and pepper mixes are available from selected delicatessens and food stores.

For more squid recipes visit www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au

Professor Iain Suthers, Sydney Institute for Marine Science believes simple is best for this naturally flavoured fish.  ”This is an old method - hardly a recipe - shown to me by Bill, an 88 year old oyster grower from Wallaga Lake back in 1980.  He had ‘em laid out, scales down onto the coals, as we lay back in the sand dune drinking from a flagon of muscat.”

Serves 2-4

1 whole Sea Mullet.  Alternatively use Australian Salmon, Tailor, Blue Mackerel, Silver Trevally and Pilchard

Olive Oil

Salt & pepper to taste

lemon wedges and green salad to serve

Rinse the fish and pat dry with paper towel.  Lay the fish flat and fillet one side only on the top (dorsal) side from behind the head to the tail, gently pushing the knife against the rib cage to release the flesh, or simply cut through the ribs on one side. Separate the fillet from the base of the tail but do not cut through the belly of the fish.

Gently pull the fish open like a book and clean out the guts (although the roe could also be cooked or smoked).  A band of fat along each side of the backbone (depending on the season) may be left to melt and baste.  Rinse the fish and pat dry.  Season with salt and pepper.

Lightly oil a preheated barbecue or chargrill and cook the fish, scales and skin side down, over a moderate heat.  By coring the fish with a heatproof baking dish, lid or lightly oiled foil, there is no need to turn the fish.

Cook for 20 minutes or until flesh turns opaque and flakes easily when tested with a fork.  Cooking is perfect when the skeleton and ribs can be lifted free intact.

Remove the fins (and head) and serve fish with lemon wedges and salad.

Notes - The skin protects the Sea Mullet flesh during cooking but can be removed before eating to reduce the oiliness and the stronger flavour found in the darker meat beside the skin.

P.S. Pilchards are now called “Australian Sardine”

All round the Mediterranean, there’s a version of this dish, using some combination of old and new world vegetables like aubergine, capsicum, garlic, potato and tomato. The French call it ratatouille; the Italians peperonata; the Tunisians mechouis.  The Mallorquins add potato and call it tumbet.  To my mind, and in this version, it’s the pick of the bunch and ideal for autumn in the Hawkesbury, when all the ingredients are close to hand.

Ingredients

Equal quantities of…  red peppers, aubergines and potatoes for frying

Tomatoes for saucing, garlic (as much as a head of peeled cloves), onions, fresh thyme or dried oregano, a slurp of red wine and enough oliver oil for medium deep frying.

Method

First, make your tomato sauce by slicing onions and fry in oil until soft and transparent.  Skin and dice tomatoes and add to onions.  To about 12 tomatoes and two onions, add the peeled, whole cloves of garlic.  Slurp in the red wine and simmer slowly, grinding in black pepper to taste.  You want to reduce it to three quarters in volume, a thick dark sauce.

Next, cut the aubergines into 1cm thick rounds, salt and leave for 30 minutes.  Cut the capsicum into broad 8cm long strips.  Slice the potatoes into 1cm thick rounds.

Pour a good dollop of oliver oil into the bottom of a heavy wide pan, preferably earthenware or cast iron, and when hot enough, fry first the potato then the rinsed and dried aubergine slices, then the capsicums.

Drain each on kitchen paper and arrange in layers in another deeper earthenware dish for the oven: first the potato then aubergine and finally capsicums.

Just before taking the sauce off, stir in a herbs and pour over the vegetables.  Bake in medium oven for 20 minutes.

Variations - use sweet potato or turnip instead of potato or substitute torn fresh basil for other suggested herbs.

Eat with crusty bread and olive oil and a homely red or a cool light red in summer

Also delicious cold

Once a year, for about two weeks in October, the Mallorquins catch a fish called Ilampuga (here in Australia, mahi mahi would substitute) for this firm, sweet fleshed oily fish which is served baked with the tumbet.  Also try it with a slab of reef fish like red emperor or a tuna steak.