Canberra-raised chef Matthew Evans: Carp is worth eating

One of the best fish dishes Matthew Evans has ever eaten was carp. The former chef, restaurant reviewer, now gourmet farmer and sometime sailor, grew up in Canberra and would often head to Lake Burley Griffin with his mates and his fishing rod to try his luck.

But it wasn't the carp of his youth that stood out.

"We did catch it and cook it when we were kids and I remember it was always terrible," he says.

"But one of the best fish dishes I've ever had was a carp dish I had once in China. It was twice-cooked, steamed and then flash fried, done with a little bit of fennel seed, a clean-tasting, beautiful meat, and interesting delicious fish."

It taught Evans that every fish can taste good if it's cooked the right way.

"Carp is one of those fish where you have to know the bone structure, the Vietnamese are brilliant at cooking carp, so too the Chinese.

"I think sometimes here in Australia we haven't had to bother to learn how to cook different types of fish.

"There's that Anglo attitude, you look at fish almost like you look at a steak, you want it boneless so you can just sear it on both sides and be ready to go and you don't have to think about it.

"But the oceans around Australia, around the world really, provide so many different types of seafood. We say they're all fish, or they're all shellfish, but they're all different. You don't cook a blue mackerel the same way you do a trevally, you don't cook a morwong the same way you'd cook striped trumpeter.

"It's something we should all learn a little more about."

Evans himself has been learning more about seafood. Happily settled on the farm in Tasmania, his thoughts turned from pigs and potatoes to our oceans. In 2014 he hosted a three-part series What's the Catch? raising public awareness of seafood consumption and revealing bad practices. From this he's championed a campaign Label My Fish which aims to have all seafood properly marked with what it is, where it's from and how it's caught or whether it's farmed.

In the latest Gourmet Farmer outing, Gourmet Farmer Afloat, Evans and his mates Nick Haddow and Ross O'Meara set off on a boys-own adventure to circumnavigate Tasmania. In between card games, whisky drinking and tall-tale telling the lads managed to fish and cook and see their island home from a whole different perspective.

"It was an unforgettable experience," Evans says. "In many different ways, not all of them good.

"I'm not getting back on a boat in a hurry, that's for sure. Yes, I get terribly seasick.

"But to see Tasmania from the point of view that we did was a very special feeling, to think the coastline probably still looks, in many places, just like it did 200 years ago, knowing this is how the Europeans came to this land, having that sense of history was all worth it."

While the television series has finished screening on SBS, the accompanying book is out now. It's a cookbook, stemming from the feasts they consumed on board, inspired by their travel, local and further afield.

The only complaint is there's not one carp recipe in it.

Braised clams with beer and chorizo

Serves 2

We've used the wonderful venerupis clam, a big, local clam that is meaty, sweet and lip-smackingly good. You could use pipis or any other similar small shellfish for the same result.

1-2 tablespoons olive oil, for frying
1 small chorizo, skinned and diced
1 modest leek, pale parts only, washed and diced
2 bay leaves, preferably fresh
1 garlic clove (if chorizo isn't very garlicky), peeled and chopped
1 large or 2 smaller ripe tomatoes, chopped (or 125g tinned tomatoes if you can't get ripe tomatoes)
250ml wheat beer or similar
1 handful flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
1kg clams, scrubbed, purged and rinsed

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan – one that has a lid – over low heat. Gently fry the chorizo to release some of its fat (if it's lean, it's not great chorizo, but you can make up for it partly by adding more olive oil). Add the leek, bay leaves and garlic and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the leek is translucent and very soft.

Add the tomato and stir until it starts to soften and break apart. Crank up the heat, toss in the beer and parsley and boil for 1 minute. Throw in the clams and put the lid on, allowing them to steam and boil, shaking the pan vigorously every now and then. They should all open in 3-4 minutes. We often take them out as they open so they don't overcook. Discard any clams that don't open.

Tip the clams into a big serving bowl with the juice and serve with plenty of bread for soaking up the liquor.

Grilled trout on potato cakes with creme fraiche

Makes 6

You can eat this dish at any time of the day. A potato ricer for the mashing and small rösti pans for the cooking will give that special presentation, but you can make the cakes any size you like. If you can't get fresh trout, this dish also works well using smoked fish.

2 trout fillets, skin on (or substitute sockeye salmon or sea bass of you can't get fresh trout)
1 large potato (try red norland, dutch cream or any good mashing potato)
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons self-raising flour
1 tablespoon chopped chives
2 tablespoons crème fraîche
vegetable oil, for frying

Place the trout fillets on paper towel on a plate and refrigerate until ready to use. Place the potato in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a slow simmer and cook until the potato is tender. Remove and drain well.

Using a potato ricer, squeeze the potato into a bowl. Add the egg and milk and stir through, then add the flour and chives. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, if necessary.

Heat a little vegetable oil in a small frying pan or rosti pan over high heat. Place heaped tablespoons of the potato mixture in the pan and cook for about 3 minutes each side. To check, press down on the cakes – you will be able to feel if they're not ready. Repeat with remaining mixture.

Meanwhile, heat a large frying pan over high heat. Rub the trout with oil, salt and pepper and place it in the pan skin-side down. Trout doesn't take long to cook; the longer you leave it on the skin side the more moisture the fish will hold.

Place pieces of the trout fillets on the potato cakes, top with dollops of crème fraîche and serve straight away.

The Gourmet Farmer Goes Fishing by Matthew Evans, Nick Haddow and Ross O'Meara. (Murdoch Books, $49.99.)