Cooking with Carp.

As requested from a member asking me how I cook carp to eat.
I make it two different ways,
This, I make when at camp sometimes
1. Riba Corba (pronounce CHORE-BA) Fish Soup
and 2. pan fried.

OK to begin, cleaning the carp. ONLY USE SMALLISH CARP 30-50 CM
Full scale the fish and gut and clean all innards, including blood line in the spine of the gut cavity.
Important to clean the cavity thoroughly.
The skin has very strong flavor with some people like but most don't, this is where people say it taste like mud, but not mud is ever present, just strong flavor.
I don't normally use a scaler for carp.
When I scale my carp I run a very sharp knife under the scale and I try to remove the skin with the carp but not a must, most times it doesn't work well for me and most of the skin is left behind anyway.
I always remove the head from behind the first belly fins to behind the head and I remove the anal fin and dorsal fins.
My mum always wants the heads intact minus the gills,and all the fins.
The gill cannot be eaten and are toxic, how toxic, I don't know, that's what I was told and that's what I do.

Pan frying carp.
easy peasy.
when pan frying carp, we normally just use the rib cage and only part of the tail, I think just past the anal fin.
cut carp into steak cutlets. from top to bottom through the spine.
dust with flour and Vegeta and shallow fry in a pan.
when eating carp you'll notice a lot of bones, some big, some small, obviously be careful. you'll also notice some darker colored meat, this also has very strong flavor and I don't like that bit. just the whitish flesh only for me.
My mum everything.LOL

My favourite is Riba Corba.
a few ingredients but nice in the pot over a fire. this recipe is for quite a large portion. its a little hard for measurements cos I just do it by eye.
4Kg of River fish Carp, Cod etc Oil
2kg chopped, finely diced brown onion (sounds like a lot but when cooked down thickens the soup)
4 sliced carrots 1 parsnip (only if you want, I don't normally have it at camp)
4 sticks of celery (only if you want, I don't normally have it at camp) gives good flavour to soup
chopped garlic heaped table spoon
1.5 lts tomato puree
glass of sour wine not sweet like Riesling or sauv blanc (will help fish stay together)
salt and pepper to taste
Hungarian Paprika
2-3 dried bay leaves
1 tsp Cayenne pepper (only if you want it spicy)
2-3 tsp brown sugar
2-4lts stock or water or both enough to cover all the fish in the soup

slow fry onions and garlic in lots of oil until translucent, stirring constantly, not burnt or browning then add a little stock or water to onions to just cover and keep slowly cooking onions until they are mush.
add tomato puree, wine, stock, water and start to bring to a boil, adding all your dry ingredient (salt pepper sugar paprika cayenne) and vegetables and cook until vegetable are soft.
I dont know how long (1 hr maybe 1.5hrs).
add the fish only 10 mins before finishing( should only take 10mins)
finished ready to serve

Have only tried carp smoked so far, might give it a go.

Brings back very very bad dry reaching memories for me. Wish I hadn't read that, I can smell and taste the vile F@rkr now http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...2014/11/28.jpg

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Originally Posted by growler2058

Brings back very very bad dry reaching memories for me. Wish I hadn't read that, I can smell and taste the vile F@rkr now http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...2014/11/28.jpg

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but I bet you'd drink urine.

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Originally Posted by MEGOMONSTER

but I bet you'd drink urine.

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Better than eating dirty filthy underwater rabbit

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Originally Posted by growler2058

Better than eating dirty filthy underwater rabbit

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mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm RABBIT

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Originally Posted by growler2058

Brings back very very bad dry reaching memories for me. Wish I hadn't read that, I can smell and taste the vile F@rkr now http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...2014/11/28.jpg

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The way I make it, you'll never even know its carp

I have caught hundreds of carp and never cooked or eaten one, I used to live in bundalong about 25 years ago, and used to fish nearly everyday. I don't think I would fry one up but I would try the other way you cooked it, if someone else cooked it

Sorry Mego I misread the title, I thought it said 'Cooking with Crap'.

The only way I have eaten carp and enjoyed it was to lightly boil some fillets, which removed the muddy taste. Then I cooked it in the fat left from a sizable yellowbelly. It tasted as if I was eating the yellowbelly.

Most of the carp here have two heads, warts and boils on them, ohh and sometimes two tails as well...lol
They are a traditional fish over in Europe but you wont see me eating one of those feckers here .

Whats wrong with some flatty filets...lol

.....on the move

Thanks Mego.
Going to try your Recipe next Fishing Trip

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Originally Posted by MEGOMONSTER

The way I make it, you'll never even know its carp

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except for all the bones right?

Seems all the flavour of the carp is cooked out of it and replaced with HERBS and SPICES,
you wouldn't cook Barra or Schnapper that way.IMO Can you tell if its even fish?
The other day on IRON CHEF they had a carp cook off, seems that smell[dry reach] is under the skin.
a thin gelatinas layer. I would use the rock/ carp cooking theory ,
@ 5.99 a kilo at my fish monger I feel its very over priced, whats next using Charlie Carp as fish flakes
I will never eat it ever, my inlaws never ate it either

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Originally Posted by Bob

Thanks Mego.
Going to try your Recipe next Fishing Trip

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Using your own cooking gear I hope lol

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Originally Posted by threedogs

Using your own cooking gear I hope lol

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It is my turn to supply the Saturday night evening meal and guess what we are having LMAO

OOOOHHHHH NNNNOOOOOOOOO AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh run away run away

Forgot sore back limp away limp away lol

Stinking carp dunno how you eat them.

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Originally Posted by Bob

It is my turn to supply the Saturday night evening meal and guess what we are having LMAO

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jeez bob hope you enjoy it ,none for me thanks

things are still alive 4hrs later lying in 40 degree sun,
sorry couldnt do it even if it is cooked in heaps of garlic.
I'm with Lucas on this one, and I may add I've never seen anyone eat them either

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Originally Posted by roofy

jeez bob hope you enjoy it ,none for me thanks

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What do you think the chances are eh?

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Originally Posted by threedogs

What do you think the chances are eh?

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very slim mate just the smell will put him off
and that's before he starts

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Originally Posted by roofy

very slim mate just the smell will put him off
and that's before he starts

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Where are your spirits of adventure Roofy & John LMAO

Must admit I will be a bit apprehensive

what with the ticker playing up and all how could you.
Roofy and I will be POSL, dont care how you disguise the taste
its still carp.
If it was so good how come its not eaten every
where like fish and chip shops
I believe some species of carp are edible but not
the european one after all they are just big gold fish
and I wont eat a Tench either [dry reach]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carp

Carp deservedly have a bad name for the environmental damage they cause to Australian rivers and waterways. The introduced species competes with native fish and is thought to reduce water quality and cause erosion.

Carp also get a bad rap for their taste, with a commonly held opinion that carp taste pretty much like mud.

But according to Gippsland businessman Keith Bell - who has built a livelihood catching, processing and selling Australian carp to the world - the fish's reputation for tasting terrible is undeserved.

"Everybody says they live in the mud, they taste like mud," says Keith Bell. But Keith says that's not true and the 'muddy' taste associated with carp can be avoided.

"The first thing that is so important is you've got to have respect for the fish, so we don't want the fish to be in the water and so if we want to use it as a food source we've got to understand that fact that you've got to look after it."

He says freshly caught carp need to come straight out of the water and go onto ice immediately.

"If that isn't adhered to that's where that muddy taste comes from. The muddy taste is actually the histamines within the fish. As the body temperature rises through stress the histamine levels get going, it gets into the capillaries of the flesh and 'hey presto' you've got that muddy taste.

"So when we catch fish now the fish go straight out of the water and straight into ice slurry, keeping that body temperature down is the most critical part. What that does is it also takes the blood from over the rib cage and over the shoulders and puts it into the bloodline which is the bit with all the bones in it, that's the bit that we don't eat."

Keith travels around Australia giving demonstrations on preparing and cooking carp. He shows participants how to remove just the fillet of flesh from over the carp's rib cage.

"You end up with a piece of fillet off a three kilogram fish that's about the size of two slices of bread."

To cook the carp fillet Keith recommends a simple approach.

"We don't add any flavourings. All we do is, we just do what grandma did. We get that piece of fillet and we put it in a bag with a bit of flour and salt and pepper and then we get the frying pan out and we just put a little bit of butter and a little bit of oil in a frying pan and then we just pan fry it. That's as good a way to cook it as any."

Keith says it makes carp filled pan fried makes for a pleasant, subtle tasting dish.

If only more Australians could get a taste for carp and take up carp fishing as a pursuit, it might go some way to solving a major environmental problem, says Keith.

"It would help. There's no two ways about it. It's not going to be the answer, there is no one magic bullet to answer this problem. But having people having a different appreciation of it and an awareness of it would be a good start.

"It wasn't the native fish in Australia and so people got used to eating black bream, yellow eye mullet, maybe some perch, or some cod, depending on which part of Australia you came from. These things (carp) come in and they're foreign, they have a lot more bones in them and they just got such a bad reputation right at the start that people were just put off them and perception is really a bad thing.

"It's my generation that really failed badly (in perpetuating the perception of carp) and now we just pass it on to the next generation and the next generation because Dad said so."

any carp caught can go straight into your esky lol
Does that guy farm carp or just use carp from the wild??
I would think the DPI would not allow carp aqua culture.
I do however like his KISS approach to cooking it

@ Bob Phil says wash in toilet first to bring out the flavour lol

Still havent swayed my opinion you get one of them bones stuck in your clacker
mate you,l know about it

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Originally Posted by roofy

Still havent swayed my opinion you get one of them bones stuck in your clacker
mate you,l know about it

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I've eaten boney fish before that's not the problem,
problem is its a carp lol.
You have all forgotten fresh fish does not smell

So the way I cooked it that time was pretty much spot on. I landed the fish, killed it, filleted it, took the skin of and had it in the boiling water within minutes.

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Originally Posted by mudnut

So the way I cooked it that time was pretty much spot on. I landed the fish, killed it, filleted it, took the skin of and had it in the boiling water within minutes.

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yes and it tasted like what???

Yellowbelly. It was quite pleasant, but my hands stunk of carp, even after I washed them a few times, and that put me off doing it again. I have to say, that there was a thick layer of yellow tinted oil floating on top of the boiled water too.

cool from watching the Iron Chefs cooking it it seems there is a gelatinous layer under the skin.
and from talking to others that is where the smell is. still never going to try it not on my bucket list lol

Only good for the shrimp nets and cray pots

you only need to reverse 2 letters in the name of the fish and you get the true flavour