Summer may be over, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop enjoying seafood! Many Australian species come into their prime in Autumn, and paying attention to seasonality is guaranteed to get you the freshest seafood and the best prices.
We chatted to our Seafood Trading team to get you the latest autumn recommendations – try one of these species over the next couple of months to discover the best seasonal seafood Australia has to offer.
Sea Urchin
If your first taste of an Urchin was stepping on one in a rock pool, you’d be forgiven for being hesitant to eat one. But these spikey critters are just stunning to eat and, in some parts of Australia, available in plague proportions, leading researchers to call on people to eat more Urchins to help protect those habitats.
Sea Urchin 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.
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.
Blue Swimmer Crab
Blue Swimmer Crabs are one of the few crab species not sold live, and are instead available cooked or green (uncooked) – a bonus if you’re squeamish about purchasing live crustaceans.
The flesh of these crabs is translucent when raw and white when cooked, and has a mild, sweet, nutty flavour, and low oiliness. Their meat is generally moist, evenly textured and firm (claw meat is firmer than that found in body and legs).
Some people enjoy the stronger tasting ‘mustard’ or brown meat in the body. We recommend serving boiled Crab with Asian dipping sauces such as nam pla, or mayonnaise (flavoured with ‘mustard’, garlic, or herbs) or hot melted butter with a squeeze of lemon juice.
Longfin Eel
Harvested from freshwater streams, rivers, and dams on the east coast of Australia, Longfin Eels possess one of the richest, most complex meats in seafood.
Though there are many ways to enjoy Eels, the best methods are ones that work with this richness, such as barbecuing or hot-smoking.
Our favourite way to cook Eel? Take boned fillets and thread them onto skewers. Brush on a teriyaki marinade and grill over coals. Turn and baste, turn and baste, turn and baste - keep going until the fat under the skin renders and begins to bubble through. You will notice the skin frying in its own fat and dripping over the flesh side. Keep turning and basting for around twenty minutes - you won’t dry it out. Serve with a punchy salad.
Skipjack Tuna
Skipjack Tuna live everywhere in Australia, from the coastline to about 100km offshore, and are caught by a variety of methods. These days, many are line-caught which permits better individual handling of the fish upon capture. A quick brain spiking followed by bleeding the fish and placing it in an ice slurry mean that these fish come to market stiff with rigor and in sashimi grade. When you start with fish this fresh, you’ve so many options to enjoy it- sashimi, grilled steaks, hot smoked, or even preserved in glass jars. The recipe for this varies depending on what equipment you have, but the simplest method of boiling the fillets in salted water before jarring under olive oil and re-boiling will produce excellent, long-lasting results.
Yellowfin Bream
Autumn is the absolute peak season for Yellowfin Bream, meaning they are regularly seen on special in Sydney Fish Market retailers around this time of the year. They are usually sold whole (gilled and gutted), and occasionally in fillet form.
Bream are great plate-sized fish cooked whole, and their flesh also works well steamed with Asian flavours. Don’t be daunted by the idea of cooking a whole fish – it is deceptively simple and infuses it with incredible flavours. Try this recipe from Sydney Seafood School for Steamed Whole Bream with Green Chilli and Coriander.
Eastern School Whiting
Sourced from Noosa (QLD) south to Port Lincoln (SA), this small, sweet, delicate fish has so many possible uses. The fillets are lovely quickly pan fried on the skin side and just seared on the flesh side. The whole fish can be skewered and grilled over coals, or steamed with ginger and shallots, or deep fried like a chicken wing. The rib bones are easily removed or soft enough to eat without concern.