Help I've got a Zander

buxtonrabbitgreen

Hi all
Someone has given my OH a Zander. this is a BIG fish from the canal. The only ref on the web seems to be that it is a bit like a pike. Well i am going to have to cook this. Probably weighs about 10lb. Any ideas what to do with it.

adsk

I've no experience of cooking Zander myself but I've eaten it in restaurants in the Black Forest region of Germany/Alsace in France where it is a local speciality.

Did an quick WWW search and found lots of recipes in German and lots on this page

http://www.dstumpf.de/ordner03/fischrezepte/zander.html


Ideas included baking it whole under a salt crust. If you were to fillet the fish you could do a number of things e.g. simply fried in butter, white wine & cream sauce.

There are loads of ideas on this page but most involve fillets or whole fish about 2-3lbs in weight. If you speak German not a problem but you could use Altavista babelfish to translate...

buxtonrabbitgreen

adsk wrote:

I've no experience of cooking Zander myself but I've eaten it in restaurants in the Black Forest region of Germany/Alsace in France where it is a local speciality.

Did an quick WWW search and found lots of recipes in German and lots on this page

http://www.dstumpf.de/ordner03/fischrezepte/zander.html


Ideas included baking it whole under a salt crust. If you were to fillet the fish you could do a number of things e.g. simply fried in butter, white wine & cream sauce.

There are loads of ideas on this page but most involve fillets or whole fish about 2-3lbs in weight. If you speak German not a problem but you could use Altavista babelfish to translate...

Thanks for the info. Is it nice though.

southernscouser

Can I ask where it was caught as 10lb is a good sized fish! :T I'm a keen angler!

Zander are a bit like pike. I honestly couldn't tell you how to cook it though!

dannahaz

Are you sure it's really edible?

I remember Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall cooking Pike on his programme, and that thing had to soak forever to get the taste of mud out o fit before he cooked it.

Oh, lightbulb, It might be worthwhile asking the question (about how to cook it) on the River Cottage messageboard?

buxtonrabbitgreen

southernscouser wrote:

Can I ask where it was caught as 10lb is a good sized fish! :T I'm a keen angler!

Zander are a bit like pike. I honestly couldn't tell you how to cook it though!

I hope its edible as I'm planning to cook it tomorrow. It was caught in the local canal.

buxtonrabbitgreen

dannahaz wrote:

Are you sure it's really edible?

I remember Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall cooking Pike on his programme, and that thing had to soak forever to get the taste of mud out o fit before he cooked it.

Oh, lightbulb, It might be worthwhile asking the question (about how to cook it) on the River Cottage messageboard?

Thanks for that. I will have a look.

patchwork_cat

Zander aren't native to this country and are apparently vicious - they eat dead and diseased fish like Pike, but only worse . Personally I wouldn't eat one. Mind you having dissected a dogfish (rocksalmon!) and seen the worms I wouldn't eat them either .
Having said that Nigella has a recipe http://www.nigella.com/recipes/recipe.asp?article=2263

buxtonrabbitgreen

patchwork_cat wrote:

Zander aren't native to this country and are apparently vicious - they eat dead and diseased fish like Pike, but only worse . Personally I wouldn't eat one. Mind you having dissected a dogfish (rocksalmon!) and seen the worms I wouldn't eat them either .
Having said that Nigella has a recipe http://www.nigella.com/recipes/recipe.asp?article=2263

Oh yeuch. I now seriously want it out of the fridge. If it is not native to this country how did it get into the coventry canal then?

Nile

buxtonrabbitgreen wrote:

Oh yeuch. I now seriously want it out of the fridge. If it is not native to this country how did it get into the coventry canal then?

It was introduced into this country from Eastern Europe. Some of the waters where the biggest zander are now found, such as the River Severn and Coombe Abbey Pool near Coventry, were originally stocked illegally.;)

buxtonrabbitgreen

Ok thanks for all the help. I am now going to attack it with a recipie off river cottage forum. But after looking at its ugly face and all the unfavourable comments from colleagues at work, I dont think i am actually going to want to eat it. I heard today that it is the only fish in the canal that you are allowed to kill, and that it is positivley encouraged.