Australian Christmas is synonymous with seafood: cold prawns peeled by hand, oysters with a squeeze of lemon, salmon or Barramundi on the BBQ, a Rock Lobster (if you’re feeling fancy)… But the species we eat at Christmas rarely change year-to-year.
Not only will adding some more variety to your Christmas spread impress your guests, but it will also save you money! Prices of many popular species take a jump at Christmastime in response to high demand, so if you go for the lesser-known species, you’re guaranteed to save!
Check out our top 5 suggestions for lesser-known Aussie species here.
Australian Bonito
A true east coast Rockstar, these fish live fast and die young! Reaching harvest weight in under a year and with a maximum lifespan of five years, these are a popular recreational catch, as well as being increasingly valuable to the commercial industry. Bonito mostly eat small fish, which impart a lovely intramuscular fat as well as a briny flavour to the flesh. This should be considered when cooking.
Seared Bonito loin (Tataki) is a great way to use a small amount as an alternative to a larger Tuna. Our favourite method for this fish, however, is hot smoking. Skinned fillets are rubbed with a paste of brown sugar and soy and placed in a hot smoker for about ten minutes. So good!
Royal Red Prawn
There is no doubt that Australians love their prawns. King, Tiger, School, and Banana Prawns are all readily consumed year-round, but especially at Christmas… and they fetch appropriate prices. What most Australians don’t know is that we are also blessed with a bounty of deep-sea prawns including the Royal Red Prawn.
This species prefers to live over muddy bottoms, between 200 and 1000 metres deep, with three distinct populations caught off New South Wales, Queensland, and West Australia. Their deep environment means they live in cold water which imparts tenderness and sweetness to their flesh. When very fresh, these prawns can be eaten raw or just blanched in hot water. They are also arguably the best prawn to use as a filling in the Cantonese classic Har Gow - roughly chopped raw prawn meat is lightly seasoned and folded into dumplings before being steamed. Delicious!
Bigeye Ocean Perch
This classic two-person fish looks as good as it tastes, with a vivid orange-red blush across the skin when fresh. Living in deeper ocean waters off the coast of south east Australia, between depths of 250-800m, Bigeye Ocean Perch has a fine, delicate flake to the flesh and a broad, sweet flavour.
A whole fish is the perfect centrepiece for a Christmas lunch... And this is an ideal fish for steaming. Try using aromatic flavours such as garlic, ginger, and soy to highlight the inherent sweetness in this fish.
Maray
For Australian Sardine lovers, there’s a new kid on the block. Maray, otherwise known as the Australian Round Herring, is a southern, deeper-sea Sardine that manages to combine a beautiful appearance with a classic Sardine richness. The main difference between the two is that Maray is caught in much smaller volumes, close to Sydney, and as a result is often of a superior quality. To eat them, treat them like very nice Sardines.
Fantastic grilled, of course, but it should be noted that when they’re very fresh, this species can also be eaten raw or lightly cured. Try raw fillets, laid flat and dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper as a wonderful Christmas lunch.
Sea Urchin
If your first taste of an Urchin is stepping on one in a rock pool, you’d be forgiven for being hesitant to eat one. But these little guys are just stunning to eat and, in some parts of south east Australia, available in plague proportions, leading researchers to call on Australians to eat more Urchins in an effort to protect those habitats.
Each Urchin has five fat tongues of roe in the shell that range in colour from off-white to a vivid ochre. The roe is creamy and sweet with just enough salt to remind you that it’s seafood. It’s so versatile to eat – straight out of the shell, raw, on sushi, or as an amazing pasta sauce. Sydney restaurant Saint Peter even serves Urchin roe on hot crumpets for brunch.
Loved worldwide, it’s really only cheap in Australia and New Zealand. A don (bowl) of rice and uni can set you back $60 in Tokyo, or $30 for a small frozen Urchin in Singapore. In Sydney, whole live Urchin are sold for as low as $5 each! In addition to being delicious, and the positive environmental impact that harvesting Urchins has, the roe is rich with a chemical called anandamide, which has both muscle relaxing and mood-elevating qualities. So, you can eat the problem and feel good about it.
