Red Emperor. How to cook?

topcropper

topcropper

I did a weeks long fishing trip at Swains reef off Gladstone last week with 14 others on a commercial tour. Caught a heap of fish, coral trouts, parrot fish, sweetlips, spangled emperor, mackerals plus other stuff. All gets filleted by the deckies, and bought home. But the trophy fish to catch is the red emperor. I caught this fella, 56 cm. So bought it home whole to cook up with some friends.

069a.jpg


It doesn't get any better than a red emperor. Normally you'd add a lot of stuff to a fish to improve the taste, but I wouldn't want to over do it with this fish, it will taste fantastic as is.

It was frozen soon after being caught after being gutting. It wasn't scaled. A few people reckon I should scale it before cooking? Some say not to as the skin and scales will just fall off?

Seems a lot on here are great cooks. I don't do fish much.

How would you cook and eat this magnificent fish and impress my guests?

I have a big oven that it would fit in, in the kitchen, and a big BBQ with hood.


See ya's.
 
Last edited:
Wrap, in foil with a squeeze of lemon and spread some onion slices over and maybe a sprinkle of olive oil. As you say, not too much. The fish on it's own will do.

Bake in the hooded BBQ or oven, but ever so slowly.

Those scales and skin will come off but I prefer to eat the skin but without scales so I always scale it first.

Red Emperor is still to this day the best fish I have ever tasted...it's a goodn you caught too BTW..ripper!:)
 
The Fence said:
Red Emperor is still to this day the best fish I have ever tasted...it's a goodn you caught too BTW..ripper!:)
Click to expand...


Yeah, I went 15 years ago, and back then red emperors had to be 40 cm to keep. Now it's 55 cm for keepers, so this bloke was only just a keeper.

We caught 470 keepable fish. Probably twice that were undersized, so were let go. But everyone gets excited when it's a red emperor. Only got a few redies as keepers. One bloke pulled up a big one that would have been a keeper, but a shark took most of it as it was being pulled in.


See ya's.
 
topcropper said:
I did a weeks long fishing trip at Swains reef off Gladstone last week with 14 others on a commercial tour. Caught a heap of fish, coral trouts, parrot fish, sweetlips, spangled emperor, mackerals plus other stuff. All gets filleted by the deckies, and bought home. But the trophy fish to catch is the red emperor. I caught this fella, 56 cm. So bought it home whole to cook up with some friends.

069a.jpg


It doesn't get any better than a red emperor. Normally you'd add a lot of stuff to a fish to improve the taste, but I wouldn't want to over do it with this fish, it will taste fantastic as is.

It was frozen soon after being caught after being gutting. It wasn't scaled. A few people reckon I should scale it before cooking? Some say not to as the skin and scales will just fall off?

Seems a lot on here are great cooks. I don't do fish much.

How would you cook and eat this magnificent fish and impress my guests?

I have a big oven that it would fit in, in the kitchen, and a big BBQ with hood.


See ya's.
Click to expand...
Works both ways with the skin on or off,i have done a few smaller than that one you caught in a large S/S baking tray on in the BBQ oven,salt pepper butter with alum foil over the tray,then get a bottle of cold beer when the beer is finished the fish is cooked,but i'm a slow drinker..
 
The Fence said:
Wrap, in foil with a squeeze of lemon and spread some onion slices over and maybe a sprinkle of olive oil. As you say, not too much. The fish on it's own will do.

Bake in the hooded BBQ or oven, but ever so slowly.

Those scales and skin will come off but I prefer to eat the skin but without scales so I always scale it first.

Red Emperor is still to this day the best fish I have ever tasted...it's a goodn you caught too BTW..ripper!:)
Click to expand...

What he said.

You could also add a bit of lemon pepper or capsicum slices...

or give it the Asian influence with lemongrass, onion, ginger, a touch of soy ??? wrapped in alfoil and thrown in the Webber.
 
I've done that trip to Swains, TC. A week bobbing around out there catching a mountain of fish. It's a great thing to do

Coral trout is my favourite, but red emperor isn't far behind.

Hard to go wrong with a fish like that. As the others have said, you need to seal it inside foil.

I often splash a bit on wine in there and put some lemon slices on the fish and if I have any, I bung in some grated ginger and shallots.

Check it once or twice at the thickest part of the fish - behind the head. When it's nearly done there, take it out of the oven - it will keep cooking for a while.

Scott
 
Scott Hillier, a well known personality, does charters out of Ingham. He specializes in "red fish". He knows his stuff. :)
 
depreciator said:
Coral trout is my favourite, but red emperor isn't far behind.

Scott
Click to expand...


I bought back a whole coral trout too. But a lot smaller than the red emperor. Plus a gazillion coral trout fillets.

This trip had little dorey boats. I mostly went off on these all day and fished over the reef. The younger blokes did this in the doreys, and the older blokes stayed on the big boat.

One thing I learnt is that the coral trouts living over and amoungst the coral aren't red, they turn yellow/blueish. They do this for camo, as the reef is the same colour.


A red one, caught from the boat in deep water.

009a.jpg



And one caught in just a metre of water on a reef, from a dorey.

095a.jpg



Both exactly the same fish apparently, but living in different spots. That's what I was told anyway.


See ya's.
 
I didn't know that about coral trout. That big coloured one in the photo has my mouth watering.


Yeah, our boat had dories, too. It was a great trip. I remember it clearly ever though it was about 15 years ago.

I liked it at the end of each day when the little boats were back and we were having a beer on the back deck and fishing with floaters for spanish mackerral off the back of the big boat.

I'm organising another trip right now off Gladstone. Not out to Swains - not everybody wants to spend a week way out there. This will be closer in fishing reefs and around islands and spending nights in an estuary. A bit of snorkelling is on the cards as well as a wander on some islands. Can't wait.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top