Fishing today was fun until we lost a rod, reel, and rod holder!

Leggy Peggy’s Chermoula on Spangled Emperor

Nothing like the loss of some gear to put a bit of a dampener on things. We were up near the north passage for the first time and fishing quite happily when we decided to have our lunch. Russ popped a fairly good rod and reel into the rod holder and started to unwrap his sandwiches. Something took the bait, steel trace and hook, rod and reel and finally ripped the rod holder from the side of the boat. It was over the edge and gone in a millisecond! Russ nearly tipped US into the drink making a lunge for it all but to no avail. It’s not the loss that’s as annoying as the replacing of it. We’ll have to buy one in Exmouth and it’ll be more than we want to pay there.

We didn’t go out for long but managed to come home with 8 fish including one huge spangled emperor, two trevally and 5 Charlie Court Cod.

The spangled emperor  (or some of him) will be cooked tonight using my good friend Leggy Peggy’s Chermoula recipe. You can find it posted on food.com

Peggy Leggy’s Note:
Chermoula is a North African marinade, used especially for fish. It also makes a great dipping sauce or salad dressing. This recipe has plenty of tang and has been adapted from one by Julie Le Clerc. I use coriander (cilantro) rather than parsley and Lee Kum Kee’s Chili Garlic Sauce rather than a small red chili. I like the end product so much that I can eat it with a spoon. Yummo!

Chermoula

• 1 bunch fresh coriander or 1 bunch flat leaf parsley
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and bruised
• 1 teaspoon cumin, ground
• 1 teaspoon coriander, ground
• 1 teaspoon paprika, ground
• 1 small red chili pepper, seeded (or 1 teaspoon of chili sauce)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 lemon, juice of
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Leggy Peggy’s Chermoula on Spangled Emperor

Method

1. Pound all ingredients together in a large mortar and pestle or buzz in a food processor. You want a rough-textured paste.

Note: I use all the coriander stems.

Chermoula will keep several days in the fridge.

We also had another food.com recipe posted by NurseJaney. Couscous with Garbanzo Beans (chickpeas) and Golden Raisins (Sultanas).

NurseJaney is from the US hence the different measurements and names of ingredients. I’m making this recipe for a swap game I participate in most months. In return, NurseJaney and two other team mates will make a recipe I have posted there.

Couscous with Garbanzo Beans (chickpeas) and Golden Raisins (Sultanas).

• 2 cups water
• 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons garlic oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup couscous
• 1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup golden raisin
• salt and pepper

Couscous with Garbanzos and Golden Raisins

Method

1. Finely grate peel from lemon to equal 1 1/2 tsp., set aside. Squeeze 2 Tbsp. juice from lemon.
2. Combine 2 cups water. lemon juice, garlic oil, and ground cinnamon in medium saucepan. Bring to boil, simmer 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in couscous.
3. Cover and let stand about 5 minutes, until water almost absorbed.
4. Mix in garbanzo beans, golden raisins, and reserved lemon peel. Cover and let stand 5 minutes longer.
5. Fluff couscous with fork. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl and serve.

And lastly we had an eggplant salad. The eggplant, tomatoes, capsicum and spring onion all came from those stalls at the farm gates last Wednesday. The salad can also be found on food.com and was posted by Middle Eastern by Mag.

Lebanese Eggplant Salad – (Salatit El Batinjan)

• 1 medium eggplant
• 1 cup diced fresh tomato
• 1 cup diced bell pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped scallion (or any kind of onions)
• 1 garlic clove, mince
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 lemon, juice of
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• salt, pepper to taste

Lebanese Eggplant Salad

Method

1. Put the whole eggplant as is, (only cut and remove the stem from the top), on a baking sheet and bake it. You’ll notice when it’s done that the juice came out on the baking sheet and the skin is almost toasted and it becomes soft when you punch it with a knife.
2. Let it cool for a bit then cut it in half and remove the skin; just cut it roughly into small/medium diced pieces and put it in the salad bowl, add any juices. Then add the rest of the ingredients and mix the salad and serve.

This is good with pita bread on the side

Some days in Paradise are more perfect than others

Coral Bay

Saturday 4th was one of those days. Sunny, warm a slight breeze, and the clearest water you could imagine. We packed our lunch of leg ham, tomato and rocket rolls. The ham is a new one and it’s delicious, the tomatoes from Carnarvon ripe, red and delicious.

We fished for 4 hours and came home with 11 fish (8 Charlie Court cod, 2 red throat emperors, 1 golden trevally) some of which we gave to Jules (the friend of friends in Warrnambool), a few packets were frozen, and the trevally pickled.

It was a beautiful day out on the water and we were able to travel a lot further down the reef to fish at Sandy point. On windy days crossing the gap in the reef where the big boats go out to the ocean can be a bit rough and dangerous for us, but it was fine yesterday. I was surprised how well we did fishing, because on still days when the water is clear, the fish can see us and usually don’t bite as much.

Near Sandy Point

Sunday night we had Jules (from Warrnambool, and friends with our friends Evelyn and Ray) over to dinner for her last night here. Jules brought over a great home made dukah, truffle oil and crusty bread, Russ and I cooked slow roasted pork belly, roasted and steamed veg, and a zucchini parmesan using heaps of those Carnarvon tomatoes in a fresh tomato sauce I’d made the day before. What a lovely dinner and what a lovely lady to share it with.

Monday was another perfect day, so after doing our laundry, pickling some fish and lunch, we walked over to the beach for a swim and snorkel. The water was a bit cool for my liking, but I’ve done it now, so I’ll find it easier to get in next time.

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Whales in the bay!

Some sort of coastal plant

After a couple of days spent not fishing, we went back out today and caught ourselves a few red throat emperors, a Charlie Court cod, and two trevally (more fish to pickle)  so dinner tonight was Greek Style Fish my way. After checking out quite a few recipes and finding none of them quite “right” I decided to come up with my own version based on all of them. Apologies to any Greeks who might be reading this.

Opposite the Northern Passage Coral Bay

The last two days were spent very quietly. As it basically rained all of Friday, we spent the day in the van playing computer games or reading. Yesterday was sunny but too windy to fish, so we did our laundry (well Russ did our laundry) then headed down the coast road for some 4WDing and photos. We got as far as the Bateman Sanctuary Zone where we spent a really nice hour or so taking lots of photos. We’ve never been there before as the gate in has always been locked but it wasn’t this time. The views from the sand dunes over the reef were stunning and we were excited to see 4 groups of whales at play in the bay in front of us.

Our neighbours (with the three small boys Arty, Alby and Orson) spent two nights away in Exmouth to escape the rain. They are good kids but rise earlier than we do so we made the best of their absence and slept in both morning. It was bliss.

Greek Style Fish

• 400g fish fillets  (we used red throat emperor)
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 400g can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped (I prefer to chop my own)
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• pinch of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup pitted, chopped kalamata  olives
• Salt and pepper to taste (remember the olives and feta are salty so go easy)
• 100g feta cheese, crumbled
• Lemon wedges to serve

Greek Style Fish

Method

1. Heat oven to 190c
2. Spray a baking dish with oil, add the fish fillets and cook around 10 minutes (all this depends on how big your fillets are. You want them almost cooked but not done to death!)
3. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan and cook the onions until translucent.  Add the garlic and cook a minute more.
4. Add the tomatoes, wine, basil, oregano, cinnamon and sugar and cook over a medium high heat until reduced a little.
5. Add the parsley, olives and salt and pepper.
6. Spoon this mix over the fish in the baking dish then sprinkle over the crumbled feta. Bake for about 10 minutes more or until the feta has browned a bit and the fish flakes easily.
7. Serve with rice or pasta (we had ours with risoni ), lemon wedges and a green salad.

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Port Smith Day 7

A juvenille Diamond trevally resting on the missing fishing box

We managed to get our fishing reasonable early for us (just after 9 and saying goodbye to Kathy and Steve).  As Russ was getting organised to go, he discovered our fish box missing. It was a good one, and quite expensive, so we were a bit pissed off by that. Russ checked the fish cleaning table in case he’d left it there 2 nights before but no. I reported it missing to the office and let the neighbours know what had happened.

Everyone leaves all sorts of things outside and unlocked here so if there was a thief about, best everyone was careful. When I told neighbours Bob and Lynn, they said they’d seen it at the fish cleaning table last night. As we drove up to check one more time, one of the park employees drove down to the office with it in his trailer! Another crisis averted!

Off out to fish right on high tide, we came home with 6 fish. 2 bream, a trevally, a mangrove jack, flathead and my favourite-goat fish.

Port Smith Day 5

Alf and steve get ready to go fishing

Russ and Steve took the boat out fishing. They left at around 11 and got back at 5pm-they had to stay out that long to get the boat back in with the tide. They had a pretty good day fishing wise with 6 bream, 1 jack and two trevally coming home in the fish box.

Kathy and I spent a relaxing day chatting at her van whilst she sewed a raggy quilt. The sewing seemed to attract lots of droppers-in which was really nice too.

Thursday night is the camp dinner. Fish and chips for something completely different! 6 years ago it was held in another part of the park. They now have a permanent home for it down the back with a kitchen and 2 commercial deep fryers to cook with. 6 years ago they had an assortment of small bench top fryers and saucepans, so this new gear must make life so much easier when you’re cooking for around 150 people.

Steve and Kathy enjoying the park dinner

We sat in a semi circle with the kitchen and band making up the rest of the circle and the centre became a dance floor later in the night. The fish was fresh, and it and the chips were hot and crispy, but Russ and I got the meanest little bit of fish for our $5. 6 years ago, $5 got us 3 pieces and seconds were free. Seconds are now a “donation”.  I’d rather pay a bit more and get a more generous serve, and the fish apportioner needs to learn about portion control! Kathy made a tossed salad, and I made coleslaw so that part of the meal was generous and good!

Once again, the Family Shoveller Band came over from Bidyadanga community to play. Same father, son and grandson, all 6 years older and better we thought, musically! Father, Frances Shoveller was the music teacher at the community 6 years ago but he might be retired now. I’m not sure. Anyhow, they gave at least 4 hours of good entertainment.

Port Smith Day 4

Port Smith Lagoon late arvo

Day 4

My mojo is back! I caught 2 mangrove jacks, 1 bream and 1 trevally so I’m much happier. The tides are right out, so we had to drive over quite a bit of sand then push the boat quite a long way, before it actually floated.

Steve and Kathy who we met in Karumba arrived and we had drinks with them before heading home to make our dinner of pasta alamatriciana and to watch a movie (the secret life of bees-very good!)

Port Smith Day 2

Steven Seagull

We’re not long back from our second day of fishing. Russ managed to catch 7 good sized yellow-fin bream, an estuary cod and a golden trevally. We love golden trevally for smoking and curries and know it’s a very undervalued fish here in WA. I only caught 2 rubbish fish, an undersized cod and the bottom more times than I’d care to admit.

Russ caught a 1.5mt shovel nosed ray and almost got him into the boat before he broke off. Not long after that he landed a very large bat fish that was followed up by a HUGE black whaler shark-I would say easily as long as our tinny! Makes me wonder if I’ll go swimming in the lagoon when the tides are right!

We’ve put about 10 feeds in our freezer, smoked a golden trevally and made our second batch of pickled fish. I modified the original recipe using half cider vinegar, half white, chopped red and green chillies, red onions and a couple of baby leaves. I saw all these things in other recipes so decided to try them in mine.

Russ’s smoked fish

Before we went fishing today, I used some of our freshly smoked fish in a salad for our lunch.

Smoked Fish Salad

• 150g smoked fish, pulled apart into bite size pieces
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1 400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• ¼ red onion, sliced fine
• 1 Lebanese cucumber, diced
• ½ medium red capsicum, sliced fine

Smoked fish salad

Dressing

• ½ cup low fat Greek Yoghurt
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons shredded mint leaves
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Mix the dressing ingredients together.
2. Mix the salad ingredients together gently, and then fold through the dressing.