Down in my neck of the woods hoki is the cheapest fish.
We don't have the luxury of wonderful varieties of fish ..well we do, but they cost the earth, & dear old hoki is cheap & affordable.
Tonight I decide to smoke a couple of pieces of Hoki, I brined it & smoked it for probably gently for an hour,& it' absolutely delicious, so tender.
Teamed with a spinach sort of souffle (sort of) & a couple of tomatoes & a small baked potato ...really good, dinner..
What do you do with Hoki to make it delicious?

samanya - 2018-09-17 19:49:00

Normally we just crumb it and fry with a little oil over medium heat. Cut into smaller pieces so easy to manage.
Tonight I just fried it but made a lemon creme sauce, over potatoes and greens, it was nice.

ryanm2 - 2018-09-17 19:53:00

ryanm2 wrote:

Normally we just crumb it and fry with a little oil over medium heat. Cut into smaller pieces so easy to manage.
Tonight I just fried it but made a lemon creme sauce, over potatoes and greens, it was nice.

That sounds really good.

samanya - 2018-09-17 20:10:00

Hoki has a really delicate flavour that is fantastic in chowder, fish cakes and fish pie etc. It is not usually used for pan frying as it can flake easily, which is why I am guessing ryanm2 has stated they cut it into smaller pieces to make it easier to 'manage'.

There is nothing at all wrong with this fish. It freezes really well and is delicious.

awoftam - 2018-09-17 20:16:00

Husband likes it in home-made fish burgers. I always have trouble with it falling apart so don't like cooking it, but it doesn't matter when it's just plonked on a bun with good mayo and salad.

lulu-belle1 - 2018-09-18 07:30:00

Jamie Oliver in one of his early cookbooks has a delicious recipe for fish pie that works really well with hoki.

maplekiwi1 - 2018-09-18 07:34:00

Don't like hoki, I buy Tarakihi, or if buying cheap frozen fish then Shore Mariner - which is Pollock.

lythande1 - 2018-09-18 09:24:00

I make fish and leek pie with hoki or used it instead of blue cod in my oyster/cod chowder.

fifie - 2018-09-18 09:33:00

Beer batter and shallow fry.

blueviking - 2018-09-18 09:37:00

Thanks everyone :o)

samanya - 2018-09-18 10:58:00

Terrible fish. There is a reason all the fish fingers, cakes, etc, etc, in the supermarket are Hoki . . . cheap and nasty.

wasgonna - 2018-09-18 10:58:00

samanya wrote:

Down in my neck of the woods hoki is the cheapest fish.
We don't have the luxury of wonderful varieties of fish ..well we do, but they cost the earth, & dear old hoki is cheap & affordable.
Tonight I decide to smoke a couple of pieces of Hoki, I brined it & smoked it for probably gently for an hour,& it' absolutely delicious, so tender.
Teamed with a spinach sort of souffle (sort of) & a couple of tomatoes & a small baked potato ...really good, dinner..
What do you do with Hoki to make it delicious?

...how did you brine it, and what with.thanks.

korbo - 2018-09-18 13:55:00

wasgonna wrote:

Terrible fish. There is a reason all the fish fingers, cakes, etc, etc, in the supermarket are Hoki . . . cheap and nasty.

Regarding fish, cheap does not necessarily translate to nasty. The OP did explain that it was cheap and therefore more affordable than the more expensive fish. Each fish species has its own characteristics.

buzzy110 - 2018-09-18 15:30:00

Hoki is ok for the price. Does need to have the fat line removed - it can have a really strong nasty flavour. Most of the processed supermarket products like fish fingers don't do it any favours. Fresh or good quality frozen hoki is a lot better than most of those. Easier to work with when it is half frozen.

paora-tm - 2018-09-18 15:58:00

korbo wrote:

...how did you brine it, and what with.thanks.

I used a salt/water brine & I just guessed the amount of salt ..probably a dessertspoon & it perhaps could have done with less.
I left it for around a couple of hours. It became very soft & needed careful handling ...however it was very tender & moist & was much nicer than I remember Hoki .

samanya - 2018-09-18 16:05:00

buzzy110 wrote:

Regarding fish, cheap does not necessarily translate to nasty. The OP did explain that it was cheap and therefore more affordable than the more expensive fish. Each fish species has its own characteristics.

Fish down here is really expensive imo & we don't get the variety of choices that NI seems to get.
I suppose I could get better choices by going to a specialty fish monger.

samanya - 2018-09-18 16:07:00

wasgonna wrote:

Terrible fish. There is a reason all the fish fingers, cakes, etc, etc, in the supermarket are Hoki . . . cheap and nasty.

Well it wasn't nasty smoked. I enjoyed it & would do it again.

samanya - 2018-09-18 16:08:00

I personally don't like Hoki probably because I've had some that's been close to off.
Monkfish or Warehou are great in soups, curries etc as they hold their shape and don't tend to flake away as Tarakihi etc do.
I use Gurnard or Cod for fying and two pieces of Gurnard generally only cost about $6 very rarely more than $7 and one piece is enough for me.

cgvl - 2018-09-18 17:23:00

love smoked Hoki, often buy some for fish pie.
I agree fish has almost priced itself out of the budget.
Never made a curry with fish.
would love some easy recipes.
thanks

korbo - 2018-09-18 18:16:00

cgvl wrote:

I personally don't like Hoki probably because I've had some that's been close to off.
Monkfish or Warehou are great in soups, curries etc as they hold their shape and don't tend to flake away as Tarakihi etc do.
I use Gurnard or Cod for fying and two pieces of Gurnard generally only cost about $6 very rarely more than $7 and one piece is enough for me.

Yeah, Hoki, to me has always one of the least desirable fish & freshly caught
Stewart Island Blue Cod ...that's the ultimate, out of this world for flavour ...the colder the water the better the taste, imo.
Blue cod from further north is good, but not as good & it all costs a bomb here.
I'm a fish/seafood fan
Anything from the sea (apart from Kina) love it, could easily forgo the meat.

samanya - 2018-09-18 18:34:00

Fish Mornay. Cook hoki and add cheese sauce. Cover in breadcrumbs and grated cheese and grill until golden brown.

zsazsa777 - 2018-09-18 21:47:00

samanya wrote:

Down in my neck of the woods hoki is the cheapest fish.
We don't have the luxury of wonderful varieties of fish ..well we do, but they cost the earth, & dear old hoki is cheap & affordable.
Tonight I decide to smoke a couple of pieces of Hoki, I brined it & smoked it for probably gently for an hour,& it' absolutely delicious, so tender.
Teamed with a spinach sort of souffle (sort of) & a couple of tomatoes & a small baked potato ...really good, dinner..
What do you do with Hoki to make it delicious?

Hi, Hoki is actually one of our favourites. We just lemon/salt it, pat dry, put some fish seasoning on it turn it in flour and fry it in a mix of butter and oil (served with a remoulade sauce-I strech it with sour cream, don't like too much majonnaise). Pretty plain. The downside to us is certainly not the flavour, but the 'fragility' when turning, it's also not good in curries, soups or stews.

stefanie - 2018-09-18 23:14:00

korbo wrote:

love smoked Hoki, often buy some for fish pie.
I agree fish has almost priced itself out of the budget.
Never made a curry with fish.
would love some easy recipes.
thanks

Its a long time since I made or had a fish curry, I have a curry sauce recipe I tend to use then just add meat or fish to it. Will have to look it up.
I tend to make fish soup/chowder these days as it is quicker and easy to make.

cgvl - 2018-09-19 13:01:00

cgvl wrote:

Its a long time since I made or had a fish curry, I have a curry sauce recipe I tend to use then just add meat or fish to it. Will have to look it up.
I tend to make fish soup/chowder these days as it is quicker and easy to make.

I tend to make smoked fish/seafood chowder too ...I like Jo Seagar's recipe in particular. I throw all sorts of fish, prawns etc into it & it's rarely the same each time ...the flavour is always reasonably consistent but the contents are not.

samanya - 2018-09-19 14:05:00

nothing at all wrong with Hoki

do be aware however that it is a deep sea fish and is snap-frozen at sea as the boats stay out for weeks at a time. therefore any bought that is not frozen has already been thawed out ..... to be used fairly promptly and not to be frozen again

sam .... sounds like a great dish. well done

illusion_ - 2018-09-19 19:49:00

I was always a bit worried about hoki after my bro in law who used to work on the fish trawlers told me about the worms they would remove when processing the catch out at sea... but my hubby bought some recently as it was cheap . We live rurally in North Otago and there is not much choice fish wise at our nearest supermarket ... Anyways I dipped it in chickpea flour and panfried in butter and it was really yummy . It was very delicate in texture however.I would def eat it again .

poppysinger2 - 2018-09-19 21:26:00

** bump **

autumnwinds - 2019-09-15 12:27:00

I picked up a fish curry recipe from New World which suggests to use Hoki, as it is medium firm. Can't wait to try it

rainrain1 - 2019-09-15 17:27:00

wasgonna wrote:

Terrible fish. There is a reason all the fish fingers, cakes, etc, etc, in the supermarket are Hoki . . . cheap and nasty.

I agree...when I was a kid I had fish fingers and they were disgusting... recently I thought I would try some Mariner Hoki with seasoned crumb.... one mouthful and it was those nasty old fish fingers again...

karlymouse - 2019-09-16 14:09:00

I am a huge fish fan, i even love fish fingers, me and the girls.

Edited by rainrain1 at 3:15 pm, Mon 16 Sep

rainrain1 - 2019-09-16 15:14:00

Me, too, rainrain, and hoki certainly has it's place.
As it keeps it's shape without breaking up as easily as some other fish, so definitely good for chowders, bouillabaisse, and - especially - curries. I can't think of another fish I'd rather use for curries, and I make several different sorts now I've cottoned on to a certain spicemaker called leena, easily found on... well, an auction site, for instance.....

autumnwinds - 2019-09-16 15:43:00

Looking for Leena

rainrain1 - 2019-09-16 17:43:00

autumnwinds wrote:

** bump **

You must be psychic ..I picked up some Hoki today, with the idea of having it smoked for dinner tomorrow night!

samanya - 2019-09-16 18:11:00

rainrain1 wrote:

Looking for Leena

Try looking under members :)

unknowndisorder - 2019-09-16 19:29:00

unknowndisorder wrote:

Try looking under members :)

not in members, more words....
works just with that one word in the search "in all categories"....
I checked, before posting above..

Edited by autumnwinds at 7:39 pm, Mon 16 Sep

autumnwinds - 2019-09-16 19:38:00

We had fresh crumbed Hoki for tea the other night, nothing wrong with it at all.

rainrain1 - 2019-09-19 19:00:00

rainrain1 wrote:

We had fresh crumbed Hoki for tea the other night, nothing wrong with it at all.

Did you crumb it?
If so what flavours did you use?
The smoked hoki I did a couple of nights ago was damned delicious.
It's a bit of a fiddle to get it all organised etc, but well worth it.

samanya - 2019-09-19 19:27:00

Just used flour, egg, panko crumbs, then pan fried. I like lemon pepper, or Tartar Sauce with fish.

Edited by rainrain1 at 8:04 am, Fri 20 Sep

rainrain1 - 2019-09-20 08:01:00

While I like hoki and cook some every year - the way it is fished makes me think that we really should not buy it.

But then it probably still gets fished and exported to Asia...

uli - 2019-09-23 13:08:00

we have it dusted in flour,then cooked in olive oil and a bit of butter so the oil doesn't burn,served with either a salads/chips on the side or with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies.

littleblackhen - 2019-09-27 17:32:00

uli wrote:

While I like hoki and cook some every year - the way it is fished makes me think that we really should not buy it.

But then it probably still gets fished and exported to Asia...

What way is it fished that's different to any other fish on offer in the fish shops?

samanya - 2019-09-27 17:51:00

rainrain1 wrote:

Just used flour, egg, panko crumbs, then pan fried. I like lemon pepper, or Tartar Sauce with fish.

I like home made aoli plus lemon ...yum.

samanya - 2019-09-27 17:52:00

littleblackhen wrote:

we have it dusted in flour,then cooked in olive oil and a bit of butter so the oil doesn't burn,served with either a salads/chips on the side or with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies.

Sounds good :o)

samanya - 2019-09-27 17:53:00

samanya wrote:

What way is it fished that's different to any other fish on offer in the fish shops?

Deep sea bottom trawled not really sustainable and damaging to the sea floor though modern technology is changing that a little. I will eat the ones I get as bycatch when Hapuku fishing but that's not very often and Hapuku is a bit better IMO

beaker59 - 2019-09-28 14:46:00

Thanks beaker.

samanya - 2019-09-29 20:05:00

uli wrote:

But then it probably still gets fished and exported to Asia...

....and imported back here again. Picked up some frozen seafood products in Countdown last week - fish caught here and processed in Asia!

paora-tm - 2019-10-01 19:56:00