Name: Boned Fish
Ingredients: Start with a whole gutted trout or salmon. Take the point of your knife and make an incision behind the head so that it is no longer attached to the body by the skin, but don’t go through the spine.; Make incisions on either side of the tail where it meets the body of the fish.; The final move is swift as you hold the body of the fish down with one hand and grab the tail with the other and, with one firm movement, pull the spine, ribs and head away from the rest of the fish. You should now have the fish skeleton intact and the entire body of flesh completely boneless – use the tip of your knife to remove any small bones left behind.; Slice off the fin on the back of the fish.; Slit the fish open at the belly to butterfly.; Smooth out the butterflied, boneless fish and use the point of your knife to make a small hole at the head and at the base, then another at top right and top left of the fillet area – they could be described as the shoulders. Now the fish is ready to be impaled on two sticks, one shorter than the other, like a crucifix. Turn the fish over so that it is skin-side up and push the shorter stick through one ‘shoulder’ hole and out the other. Do the same with the longer stick through the head end and out the tail end. Make sure the longest piece of the stick is at the tail end so that you can push it into the ground with the flesh facing into the fire. Depending on the heat of your fire, the fish will cook in 15–20 minutes. To eat it, you simply pull it apart with your fingers and enjoy the fresh flavour and fire smoke with a peaty dram.

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Spirit & Spice

By Ghillie Basan

Published 2019

About

Having done a Cordon Bleu course and cooked with chefs in many different countries, I am no stranger to the techniques of boning a fish with a good knife and a pair of scissors in a kitchen. But Zeki has shown me a much cleverer way to do it in the bush with just a knife and a bed of moss for support. The result is such a clean spine with ribs, head and tail attached you would think a cat had done it. It would be easier to have a video to show you but I will try to describe