Catch of the Day – Fresh Catches and How to Cook Them + 8 Recipes

Any seafood lover knows there’s nothing quite like eating it at its freshest – let’s take a look at what is available right now and recipes to create the best dishes from your catch of the day.

Salmon is available all year round – wild salmon are likely to be Pacific as the Atlantic varieties have been widely overfished resulting in most of the salmon commercially available today being farm-raised.

Farmed Tasmanian salmon is actually Atlantic salmon that was introduced and successfully reared on the island state so successfully it is now known internationally for its superior quality. With its rich, nutritious flesh, it has become a prized fish in Australia and extremely versatile to cook with.

Try this recipe for succulent salmon fillets marinated in a rich maple glaze with soy sauce and fresh ginger making it a quick and easy dish for weeknight family dinners.

Unlike other fish species, barramundi (Asian sea bass) can be caught in the wild at any time of the year. The best months are from March to May, due to the warmer water temperatures. Farmed barramundi, particularly those from Cone Bay Barramundi Farm in Western Australia, are among the finest in the country.

Grilled barramundi is a favourite, thanks to its moderate fat content, which makes it almost impossible to overcook. It has a mild flavour and firm, white to pink flesh and the side cuts are the best to use for grilling.

 

Here’s a dinner that is fast, tasty, healthy and just right for Summer evenings – barramundi fillet and pineapple salsa by Chef Julie Goodwin. If there is no barramundi available, you can choose whatever is fresh and local from the fish shop. The pineapple salsa is really versatile too, try it with grilled chicken, or fish in a soft taco shell for another quick and delicious dinner. 

The unique-looking flathead calls coastal waters home, specifically the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Of the many flathead fish species, more than 40 are found in the waters of Australia. You can get your flatties any time of the year, although the warmer months are more suitable for fishing them.

When it comes to cooking, flathead is commonly battered and deep-friend for fish and chips. Cooking whole fish over a fire, especially by the beach, is an exquisite moment. Lennox Hastie is a master of cooking with fire and his recipe for grilled flathead, broccolini and chilli does this fresh catch justice. 

Spring is the prime time for Australia’s favourite fish, snapper. Whether it’s baked whole, filleted or turned into a delicate ceviche, snapper is a Springtime treat. Available wild-caught, snapper is found near reefs and rocky bottoms, mainly near the coast or in estuaries. It has a pinkish skin with blue spots and a distinctive shape with a prominent forehead bump. 

Snapper has a mild, delicate, sweet flavour with low oiliness and moist, medium-textured flesh while the edible skin can be left on. For the ultimate fish and chips to cook at home and wow the family with crunchy triple-cooked chips and light crispy battered snapper, try this recipe. 

 

This royally-named creature is an elongated fish with spotted skin that mostly thrive in South and Western Australia. Most of us don’t like messing with our whiting too much, usually choosing to cook them in butter, citrus and fresh herbs, or lightly floured and pan-fried. Whiting has a delicate sweet flavour, low oiliness and moist, medium-textured, flaky flesh with fine bones, which are easily removed.

Crispy tempura batter makes these King George Whiting fillets an ideal family meal for warmer weather, with coleslaw and honey mustard dressing, tartar sauce and chips.

 

No way is this list complete without prawns. These sweet and salty crustaceans are particularly popular during the festive season, with people preparing their grocery lists even before early Summer. Fishing season for Tiger prawns runs from August to November, just in time for the holidays. Another popular variety, King prawns are best fished from late Summer to early Winter.

An Australian twist on a classic French recipe - ideal for Summer barbeques – make sure to add this BBQ Tiger prawn recipe to your repertoire.

Oysters – the bite-sized molluscs people either love or hate. Australia’s most popular variety, the Sydney rock oyster, is best between the months of August and March. Pacific oysters, on the other hand, peak from April to September. 

As you may know, oysters are well-loved uncooked, with a dash of lemon juice and a bottle of Champagne. If you want to ramp it up a notch, Matt Golinski’s recipe for oysters with horseradish relish and celery is the way to go:

"I love all seafood, but oysters are special. I’ve always joked that oysters and figs are two ingredients that prove that God exists. Their purity and ability to bring so much joy to the senses without adding anything to them surely could only have been created by divine forces!"

 

Crabs are also available the entire year, with peak months depending on the location and variety. One of the best-selling varieties in the region, blue crabs, are caught at their best from November through April: mostly in the bays, estuaries and inshore marine waters of Queensland.

The strong-flavoured mud crabs are another favourite. They thrive along the coastline of New South Wales from January to April and the Northern Territory from May to August.

Peter Kuruvita’s recipe for steamed mud crabs with ginger, chilli and shallot sauce is not to be missed:

"This is a dish I created back in the ‘90s after a trip to Singapore. I was a bit disappointed with the Singapore chilli crab – not that It wasn’t nice, but it wasn’t what I expected. On returning home I went into my kitchen and just reached for ingredients available in my pantry and wrote down the measurements as I went along. The result is very much like me – a little bit of flavour from around the world.”