Recipe for sous vide garfish filet
This was my first attempt at garfish.
In my opinion, garfish is not the best fish in the world, and I’m sure you can’t get more out of a piece of meat than by cooking it sous vide. Therefore, I would call this my take on the best way to prepare garfish.
Garfish is often prepared in the same way as eel or herring, that is, cleaned and coated in flour followed by pan-frying. Because I love my water bath so much, I had to try putting it in the sous vide.
But first let me say: Wow, it’s a fellow that requires a bit of patience, especially if you really want to get the bones out first.
Fortunately, you could say, the bones have the wildest green color, so they are quite easy to spot. You can certainly cook the fish with the bones, but personally, I don’t like bones in my fish. So I decided to remove them.
It’s a bit tricky because of the placement of the bones. And they are also quite firmly attached.
Here, I have “opened the fish so the “spine” lies behind the indentation you see in the middle. It takes a bit of skill to cut it out, but I managed – more or less. Additionally, there are bones behind each of the two dashed lines to the right and left of the meat piece.
I probably butchered it a bit, and that’s why there’s a small narrow piece of fish next to the larger one 😉 As I said, you can definitely choose to cook it with the bones, if you think the other way is too cumbersome.
Garfish is not among the most popular eating fish here, but it was still on our list of April’s seasonal favorites! Many choose to avoid it because of its slightly ominous appearance and the strongly green bones, but it’s a shame not to give it a chance when it’s in season.
Sous vide garfish filet
Ingredients
- 1 pcs. Garfish
- Salt
Instructions
- Remove the bones with a good knife, preferably a filleting knife. Start by making a slanted cut on each side under the bones - both along the "dashed" lines and along the "spine". Alternatively, you can choose to completely remove the piece where the "spine" lies, so you instead get two long fish fillets.
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Gourmet salt the fish for 15-20 minutes. This gives the fish a much better taste and texture.
- Rinse the fish clean of salt under cold running water.
- Pat the fish dry with a clean tea towel and place it in the vacuum bag.
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Vacuum pack the fish.
- Cook it at 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) for 25 minutes.
- Unpack the fish from the bag and pat it dry. The fish is now ready to eat. Because you have gourmet salted the fish, no additional salt is needed. Serve, for example, with potatoes and parsley sauce or butter sauce, and with a good purée, preferably either celeriac or cauliflower - or a mixture.
