If you ever wondered where we source all our brilliant seafood from, the answer is Sydney legends, Moofish. They’re a family-owned and operated business that has been around for about 20 years. The family comes from three generations of butchers and fishmongers. We started working together in 2020 when we needed some extra fresh Barramundi and diced snapper. Four years on (and countless dinners on your table), we’re so proud to be working with such a great team.
As we’ve grown, they’ve been so integral in making sure we get the freshest seafood onto your tables. We love that the majority of their products are sourced from Australian wild fisheries or aquaculture suppliers. Australia has some of the strictest controls in the world around sustainability for both wild and farmed fish, so we’re pretty lucky and even more so as they do their best to work with suppliers that have an MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) certification. We caught up with them recently and couldn’t resist asking a few questions about their business and cooking and eating seafood.
How have you seen the food landscape change throughout of the years?
We have seen an acceleration of convenient food solutions for the home. There will always be a place for raw meat and seafood products in their natural format, but there is a growing need for premium “shortcut” meal solutions for the many families that don’t have time to plan and prepare meals every night due to busy lives with school, work, before and after school sports, and activities.
What’s your favourite way to eat seafood?
Use amazing, fresh produce and keep it simple! You can’t beat beautiful fresh QLD king prawns on super fresh white bread with a little crispy lettuce and homemade tartare sauce, or a little sriracha for some kick. I’m also a massive lover of rock oysters — best eaten natural or with a very small squeeze of lemon or lime. Rock oysters are grown almost exclusively along the NSW coast, and they are globally recognised as one of the world’s best eating oysters. Being filter-feeders, they take on the flavours of the environment they live in, every estuary or waterway has its own unique characteristics based on its surrounding environment (the amount of water flow, type of sand, and sea grasses). I love sourcing oysters from different estuaries to experience the subtle changes in flavour profile.
What’s your secret to crispy skin on fish?
There are a couple of small tips for cooking a perfect piece of fish. If you want just one tip, number six is probably the key to crispy skin, but all the elements mentioned below bring it together.
- If you’re new to cooking fish, I’d always suggest starting with a slightly more forgiving species. Barramundi and salmon are good options as they can handle being cooked a little further without drying out.
- Your target is to serve fish that is cooked medium to medium/well. This ensures the fish is still juicy but is also cooked through with nice, delicate scallops of flesh that separate gently and easily.
- Another good tip is to take the fish out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking. The same theory applies to cooking steak. If you start with the product close to room temperature, it will cook evenly. Alternatively, trying to force the heat through a fridge-cold piece of any meat or fish can result in it being undercooked on the inside even though it looks cooked on the outside.
- Pat the skin dry with a little paper towel.
- Place skin side down in a hot pan or on a BBQ plate with a little oil.
- Place a piece of baking paper on top of the fish, then a fish weight, as shown in the photo below. Most people won’t have a proper fish weight, so use a heavy-based saucepan instead.
What’s your most loved Dinner Ladies dish?
I love the citrus and herb-crumbed monkfish. There is nothing like an ice-cold beer or wine with beautiful crispy fish for dinner. Especially during the summer months