Rick Stein's Pike Recipe

[Steve Walker]

Crap in the tomato patch

 

Well it's an option, but I think the neighbours would object. Peeing in the compost heap is bad enough.

[Ferg]

In the dim and distant past every monastery and nunnery had a carp pool. These were used for fish for the table as catholics in particularwere not allowed to eat meat on a Friday and fish was the only alternative. Before transport and refrigeration/freezing were introduced people away from the coast couldn't get fresh fish (or so I am reliably informed).

 

Hugh Fernley-whithingthingy (the River Cottage man) as well as cooking pike also in one of his earlier offernigs caught and cooked a carp. Before he cooked it he had to put it in a massive bath of fresh water for about 3 days because he said that otherwise the flesh tasted very earthy (presumably from feeding off the bottom).

 

The thing is, the lengths these people were seen to be going to make it edible probably put the average no-michelin star punter off ever trying to cook these fish

 

Edited August 25, 2006 by Ferg

[chesters1]

i told a woman off oneday whilst fishing at frensham great pond ,her dog cleverly run straight infront of my rods pulling them off the pod.

my muttering seemed to send her into a frenzy and she went into an anti angling frenzy of abuse.

after her tirade finished i said if it haddent been for fishing the f-ing ponds she walked round wouldnt have existed .

she stomped off still muttering, hopefully her dog bit her face off later.

as for eating them our kids were brought up on dead stuff but only barbequing really took the earthy taste away from lake caught things ,pike from rivers are fine.

Edited August 25, 2006 by chesters1

[Chris Goddard]

I wish to nominate the above post for "Post of the YEAR!!"

 

Well done Dave, interesting,truthful,entertaining and downright FUNNY!!

[captain cojones]

i liked the bit about biting her face off!!

[Dick Dastardly]

Nice to see some sensible attitudes on the subject.

 

Enjoy fishing for them,respect them,look after them,dont abuse them,dont kill them needlessly but above all dont loose your sense of proportion and turn them into Gods! (I couldnt think of the right word..is it deify (sp)? the Rev Flying Tench will know!)

[s_mac]

Nice to see some sensible attitudes on the subject.

 

Enjoy fishing for them,respect them,look after them,dont abuse them,dont kill them needlessly but above all dont loose your sense of proportion and turn them into Gods! (I couldnt think of the right word..is it deify (sp)? the Rev Flying Tench will know!)

 

Im a fish monger for a living, i see the demise in all sorts of fish, the shortages, because of over fishing. now because of the shortages, we farm them. many fish are farmed these days, and thats fresh water as well as sea fish.

 

mother nature has looked after things just fine for thousands of years, till we came along, and decided to fish for this, or cull that, the culling is another word for killing. just a way to justify the killing.

 

we say pike do this and do that, so get rid of them. some ponds and lakes now have crayfish problems, so we look to introduce things to kill the crayfish. then we will look to introduce something to kill what killed the cray fish.

 

i say leave the pike, the fish, the predators alone. if the food chain goes down where there is not enough for them, then they will die off naturally.

 

if theres plenty for all they will thrive.

 

lets enjoy catching all breeds of fish, and return them to the waters, and let mother nature look after things and she knows best.

 

and im no eco warrior. i just love to fish.

 

s_mac

[Dick Dastardly]

I used to love to fish from the beach for cod...............

 

But it seems its ok to rape the sea to keep fishmongers in a job but not kill the occaisional course fish eh s_mac ? Only teasing mate!

 

On a serious note though If people actually had to go and catch their own fish rather than depending on the conveniance of the fishmongers I bet my fat behind that there would still be plenty of cod left! Mind you I bet things aint that rosy for the fishmonger.I say that as most people wouldnt know what to do with a bit of wet fish! for them cod comes frozen and ready battered from the supermarket.

 

Lets hope no freshwater fish (wild as opposed to farmed) ever becomes that popular a table fish (though due to there taste as long as a few cod escape the nets I seriously doubt it!) after all it would be a shame to see trawlers on Llangdegfed!

[s_mac]

I used to love to fish from the beach for cod...............

 

But it seems its ok to rape the sea to keep fishmongers in a job but not kill the occaisional course fish eh s_mac ? Only teasing mate!

 

On a serious note though If people actually had to go and catch their own fish rather than depending on the conveniance of the fishmongers I bet my fat behind that there would still be plenty of cod left! Mind you I bet things aint that rosy for the fishmonger.I say that as most people wouldnt know what to do with a bit of wet fish! for them cod comes frozen and ready battered from the supermarket.

 

Lets hope no freshwater fish (wild as opposed to farmed) ever becomes that popular a table fish (though due to there taste as long as a few cod escape the nets I seriously doubt it!) after all it would be a shame to see trawlers on Llangdegfed!

 

i agree with what you say, i only became a fish monger a year and half ago, but did you know they now farm cod, seabass, halibut, salmon, seabream, and many others, the list is endless these days.. as for the wet fish thing, yes your right when it comes to the english, we buy it all from iceland. but your african, greeks, and the likes, know there fish, its there staple diet. no diff for us with beef pork or lamb. as for fresh water fish, yeah maybe in this country we dont eat the fish from our ponds and lakes... but there are many nationalties that do, polish the biggest threat to us. they eat carp at xmas and easter like we eat turkey. only last sunday morning i chased a polish guy for taking a bream out of the canal i fish. i saw him land it, put it in a bag, so went to approach him and he bolted. the more foreing countries we let in, the more the threat, but at the end of the day, i do totaly agree with you on the over fishing of natural fish.

[GlennB]

.... only last sunday morning i chased a polish guy for taking a bream out of the canal i fish. i saw him land it, put it in a bag, so went to approach him and he bolted. the more foreing countries we let in, the more the threat, but at the end of the day, i do totaly agree with you on the over fishing of natural fish.

 

Quick question -

 

which fish are under most threat from over-fishing for food - sea or coarse?

 

Seems to me that our oceans are being totally devastated (or have already been) in respect of many species- herring,cod,salmon,tuna , you name it, I can't be bothered to go look it up - but all the debate here is about a few "dubious eating" coarse fish getting nicked There are no fleets of trawlers down the Avons, Trent,Thames ....

 

As far as fish-for-eating goes, folks, please get a sense of perspective.