Smoked Gurnard

Smoked Gurnard - a new experience

Nearly forty years ago, fishing with my father and with my grandfather, off Salcombe, we would catch gurnards (when fishing for other more prized species!) and bring home to cook. Very few people bothered to eat gurnards and I remember them as a fish commonly used in the crab pots on the small boats fishing out of Hope Cove, along with conger eels that were often left hanging in the sun before being used in the pots. The conger eels, were a strange and smelly spectacle for the holidaymakers who walked down the slipway at Outer Hope.

Yesterday we were given some locally caught gurnard that had been smoked here in Brixham. We were given three fish, which had been smoked whole (minus head, tail and gutted).

Keen to try this very familiar fish, I stripped off the skin and removed the flesh from the rather unusual bone structure. This was largely successful, although later my portion did have a couple of bones, even though I had been ruthless in trimming the fish!

I enjoyed the fish, which was only very, very lightly smoked (if at all), most of the smoke probably having been absorbed by the thick skin. My beloved was less sure, having been expecting a smokey fish rather than the taste of gurnard cooked in a different way. I enjoyed the moist flesh and very delicate flavour and I'm sure an imaginative chef could do great things with this fish.

Grey Gurnard (Eutrigla gurnardus) is a very strange fish, with front feelers that 'walk' along the bottom looking for food. I think it also omits sounds and grunts underwater (never tested this) and is territorial and referred to as a 'sea robin'.

The price of whole gurnard at the fish merchant (retail) in Brixham this morning was £6.80 per kg.