Smoked Sweetlips

Commonly regarded as one of the worst rated table fishes in Australia, the sweetlips is ironically one of the most commonly caught in the early stages of the spearfishermans underwater career.

These fish are can grow quite large and are generally pretty easy to catch. They’re not the brightest of fish and are quite curious so they’re often the ones who find you. Sometimes swimming right onto the end of your spear.
They cop quite a bad wrap in the fishing community. An inferior table fish allegedly.
I’ve seen facebook posts in the spearfishing groups i’m in that absolutely slam new guys for catching sweetlips and taking the piss out of them for not being able to catch anything that tastes better.
Granted, the opprobrium is served from those who most probably can’t tell the difference between salt and sugar. So, take their words with a grain of salt.. or sugar…

There are a few rules however, which we must follow to ensure the quality and taste of our fish is going to be of a premium quality.
Firstly - Brain spiking the fish. (Ike-jime)
Brain spiking the fish as soon as possible will firstly stop it from suffering, secondly and quite importantly, will stop the build up of lactic acid in the muscles which will help preserve the quality of the meat.

Secondly - Bleeding the fish.
A simple snip to the gills with pair of scissors will bleed the fish quite quickly. After the brain spike, the fish’s heart will still pump for several minutes so don’t worry about snipping the gills first.
Doing this in salt water will also prevent the blood from coagulating and run more freely from the body.
The purpose of bleeding the fish is to stop it pooling in the flesh, resulting in a better coloured fillet and also prolonging the shelf life of the meat.

Thirdly - Getting the fish on ice.
This is incredibly important. Putting your fish into an icy slurry as soon as it comes out of the water will help in the preservation of the quality of the meat.

So now that we have our basic rules of catching and preservation, next comes preparation.

Take off your fillets and collars as per usual.
If your fish has a significant blood line on the skin side of the fillet, you can simply and gently shave it out with your knife. Generally this is where any strong fishy flavour will come from so doing this will help you get a more delicate tasting fillet.
Taking all of the above steps with every fish you catch will guarantee that you get the best out of your catch.

Now you’ve got a beautiful fillet thats going to have next to no fishy flavour, you can use it in so many different applications. The meat is delicate and flaky so consider that when choosing what to make with it. If you’re going to fry it up in the pan, plenty of butter and thyme, or if you decide to make a curry, put it in last minute and simply turn off the heat and let the residual heat of the sauce and pan to do the cooking for you. No stirring, otherwise you’ll break up the delicate flesh.
This recipe is going to be super simple.

All you’re going to need is some spice rub, in my case i’m using a spiced chilli sauce, and your fillet of fish.

Ingredients -

2 Fillets of sweetlips
Spice rub of your choice
Salt
Fresh Eucalyptus or melaleuca leaves. (You can use smoking chips if you prefer)

Method -
Heat your smoker and prepare it with your desired smoking medium. Chips, leaves, bark. Up to you.
Rub your fillet down with the spice rub and then season with salt.
Place your fillet into the smoker and smoke on high for 10-15 minutes. Just be cautious of the temperature of your smoker as this will obviously affect the cooking time. If it needs longer, then go longer.
Take your fillets out and let them rest. This is important.

Serve with roasted potatoes and a salad. Extra chilli sauce optional.