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Blue Salmon or Tailor with Pippies in Beer Butter Sauce

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Threadfin salmon seem to have become more “fashionable” of late; Territory and Cape York fishos are nailing ‘em on lures as an exciting barra bycatch, and there is now a serious fishery for XOS threadies in the chilly, murky old Brisbane River. The threadfin’s lesser cousin, the blue salmon or “bluey” is a great fish in its own right. Blueys are more pelagic than their bigger cousins; most often found around the sandbars at river and estuary mouths they are tropical Australia’s equivalent to the tailor of southern states. A headless bluey and a headless tailor look almost identical; the two species are also very similar on the plate, with moist, well flavoured flesh that is superb fresh and very ordinary after freezing.

Just like tailor; blueys will hit metal spoons and slices in clearer water; they are also suckers for fresh cut baits and half pilchards. Whilst they don’t have the tailor’s razor sharp teeth blue salmon do have very rough, rasping jaws that make short work of light mono leaders; especially as they tend to jump and shake their heads when hooked.

Camping on the beach and catching blueys or tailor often includes gathering pippies for bait or snacks and of course a beer or two. I’ve included all three ingredients in a recipe that would work  well on either fish.

Ingredients

About a kilo of fresh, skinned bluey or tailor fillets. I like to use the full fillet thickness of an average 2kg buey.

A double handful of pippies in the shell. Obviously that’s a lot more of our tiny northern pippis than the bigger southern shellfish. If you keep your pippies in a bucket of clean seawater overnight they will be much less “sandy” when cooked

Beer. There always seems to be one in my hand when I’m cooking

Butter or margarine for cooking, salt and pepper to taste.

Method

Preaheat a large frypan to a medium high temperature. I usually use a non-stick pan but for this recipe a plain stainless or cast iron pan is better. Or a “used to be” non stick pan, of which I have plenty! Add the pippies, slosh over about a third of a can of beer, and cover at once. The resulting steam will kill and open the pippies very quickly. After a minute or so, uncover and reduce the heat to medium. Stir the pippies around for another minute or two until the mixture of beer and pipi juices has reduced a little, then add a dollop or two of butter. Continue to stir until nearly all the shells are open and  the sauce is thick and just starting to brown and stick to the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and tip the pippies and sauce onto a plate.  Discard any pippies that haven’t opened, and remove and save the meat from the others. It’s the chef’s privilege to suck the shells before throwing them away.

Add some more butter to the unwashed pan and bring back to a low medium heat. Add the fish fillets and cook gently for about four to five minutes per side , depending on fillet thickness. Lift the fillets with a spatula and move them around occasionally, but only turn them once. Yes the fish will stick a little, but we want this to happen. Keep the heat fairly low so the pan doesn’t burn.Flake open the biggest piece of fish to check that it’s cooked right through. Once the fillets are cooked remove from the pan and arrange on serving plates, four serves for normal people or two serves for gutses like me. Return the pippi meat to the pan and add another third of a can of beer. Deglaze the pan over medium low heat, stirring constantly for a minute or so until the sauce has thickened. Add a little pepper to taste; the pippi juice is usually salty enough. Top each pile of fillets with a generous dollop of pippies and sauce and serve at once with steamed vegies, chips or salad.

The shellfish sauce compliments the stronger blue salmon or tailor flavour nicely; this dish really goes down nicely with a Pinot Grigio/Gris

Anthony Davies

November 2nd, 2011  |  Posted in Uncategorized  |  No Comments »