Sea Fishing

 

Six of went out yesterday to try our hand at sea fishing off the west coast of Galway, Ireland.

We had a great day and caught a lot of fish. We throw back about two thirds of our catch because they were undersized.

We caught common ling, cold fish, pollock, mackerel and even managed to catch a sea slug and one dog fish that we quickly released!

Our freezer is now full and we had a wonderful day despite the wet weather and plan to go again soon.

Enjoy the photo's :-)

Foraging for mussels

I brought the kids foraging for mussels at the weekend. They had great fun and the lovely weather helped.

We picked more than I had thought!

I put them into a bucket of iced water overnight to let them filter feed, therefore cleaning themselves of sand etc.

I heated up a pot of butter and garlic leaves and then added the mussels. After 2-3 minutes they opened their shells and were ready to eat.

Note: I had checked before cooking the mussels that they were all closed and therefore still alive! Don't eat mussels that are open when uncooked!

Yummy! I have eaten at least thirty so far today and the pigs are loving munching at the empty shells.

Wild brown trout

As we live in a fishing district, we get plenty of offers of free fish that we never turn down.
So today we got a wild brown trout that friends caught last night.

The boys were delighted with the fish and the impressive set of razor sharp teeth.

We picked flat leaf parley and bay leaf from the veg garden and filled the stomach cavity with the herbs, some butter and seasoning.
Into the oven for 35 mins wrapped in foil.

The fish tasted wonderful, so fresh and firm with a strong flavour from the herbs and butter. Yum!