Bonito sashimi

It’s Bonito time. The sea around Gibraltar is teeming with these beautiful torpedo-like fish, a member of the mackerel family. My dad, true to form, is filling the freezer with these babies. 

Bonito is an oily fish, its flesh lighter than tuna but still bloody. One way round this, a tip we learned from this excellent book on catching and eating fish, is to bleed it just after you’ve caught it. You do this by cutting the gills. Not pleasant, but worth it.

Bonito flesh is firm and sweet on the palate. For me, the best way to eat it is to do as little as possible to it.

We had some of this raw at Ned’s the other night. My dad can’t get his head round this. He thinks we’re going to get worms (unlikely, as the fish was frozen for a couple of days beforehand). In Gibraltar, people tend to cook their fish, but more on in a later post.

We didn’t do much to this, so I won’t bother with a recipe. My dad had filleted the fish and given us a long, boneless flank. Half of this I sliced thinly and served on a bed of red onion (above). We splashed a little soya sauce on it, not much. Just a drop per slice.

The other half we rolled in cracked black peppercorns, crushed dry chillies and rock salt before searing in a pan to form a thin crust. Coat the pan with olive oil first. Then we sliced thinly and served on a bed of rocket with a dash of lemon juice.

Lovely.