Cook your Catch – Knobbed Porgy (Chinese Steamed Fish)
Eugene L. 05.03.23
Porgies are one of the most prolific families of marine fish in the world, with well over 100 species all over the world. Notable species out of the 100 would be; the Sheepshead, Red Porgy, Red Seabream, Pinfish, Jolthead Porgy, and Dorade, most of which are enjoyed as great table fare known for their white and mild meat. Most porgies are deep-bodied fish with a small mouth separated by a broad space from the eyes. They have a single dorsal fin with lots of strong spines that changes into soft rays as the fin goes down the back of the fish, and the scales tend to be large and firmly attached to the skin. In the Gulf of Mexico, the most common species you’ll run into is the Red Porgy, also called white or pink snapper, but occasionally you’ll catch something like a chocolate chip porgy, whitebone porgy, or in this case a Knobbed Porgy. The Knobbed Porgy, like most porgies, has nice white flaky meat, perfect for the steamer in today’s Chinese Steamed Fish recipe.
Cook your Catch on AllOutdoor
The first thing to do is to take the head and collars off of the fish, just run your knife along body of the fish tracing from behind pelvic fins up along the collar and the back of the head. Once you do this on both sides pull back on the head while holding the body firmly to break the spine and remove the head and collars. Once that’s done you can start filleting the fish.
Take your knife and run it along the dorsal fine for a shallow cut to break through the scales and skin. I leave the scales on fish I’m skinning for easier skinning later.
After that first cut through the skin, carefully run the knife along the bones at a very shallow angle, using the bones as a guide still you reach the spine. Make sure to have a knife sharp knife and make long smooth strokes, you don’t want to saw the knife back and forth. That sort of motion will tear up your fillet and waste meat.
Once you get the knife to the spine, carefully cut over it again with long slices. Make sure not to overshoot the spine and into the fillet. Once past the spine same slices again using the bones as a guide on the portion of the fillet behind the ribcage. On the side above the ribcage push through the small pin bones and then follow the contour of the ribcage leaving the rib bones attached to the frame.
Once you got both sides of the porgy taken off you can keep the head and frame for soup and stock, or just toss them. A fish this small doesn’t have too much left after filleting. Now we are going to finish deboning the fillets, along the mid-line of the fillet there is a line of pin bones. You want to cut along the bones to the skin on both sides of the line of bones. Not cutting through the skin when you do this though.
Now to skin the fillets, start at the tail keeping the knife close to the skin and parallel to the cutting board, pushing the knife forward without sawing. Once skinned do a little trimming and then pack the fillets in paper towels and wrap up for later when were cooking.
Chinese-style Steamed Fish is a very easy dish to make needing just a little prep and cook time. It doesn’t have to be just porgy for steamed fish either, any white-fleshed flaky fish works great for this recipe. It can also be done with whole fish as well, just the fish prep is a little different along with a longer cook time.
