Is it possible to eat rabbit fish? Stewed sea rabbit. Sea hare: "Fish with garnish"

It has long been valued by culinary specialists in European countries because it is endowed with easily digestible protein, vitamins E, A and D, micro- and macroelements and fatty acids that can lower cholesterol levels in the blood. The sea hare is very popular - a fish up to two meters long, with dense white meat and valuable fat used in medicine.

Most often in supermarkets you can find this product frozen, and in the case of repeated freezing, the fish loses its nutritional properties and taste. Therefore, when buying a sea hare, you should not take fillet; it is better to have a whole carcass, cutting which will not take much time. In this case, the eyes of the fish should be shiny and transparent, and the gills should be red and completely closed.

Due to the fact that (the fish is also found in fresh water bodies) it has not only high nutritional, but also healing properties, he is valuable product in cooking, so today there are a large number of recipes for its preparation. Let's look at those that are most often used in the cuisines of different countries.

1. Baked hare fish (Russian cuisine recipe)

Ingredients: half a kilogram of fish, two spoons, one spoon of curry, one carrot, one cucumber, fifty grams of olives and black olives, two radishes, herbs, salt and spices.

Cleaned and gutted fish must be rubbed with a mixture of salt, curry and oil, placed on prepared foil and baked in the oven at high temperature half an hour. The finished sea hare is taken out and covered with foil to allow it to cook.

Meanwhile, spirals are cut out of carrots, buds are cut out of radishes and cucumbers, and olives are cut into rings. The fish should be placed on a large dish, decorated with olives, carrot spirals, cucumber and radish flowers, and sprigs of herbs.

2. sea hare- fish in sauce

Ingredients: kilogram of fish, one glass each pomegranate juice and broth, one large onion, four cloves of garlic, one paprika, one spoon of tomato paste, half a glass of nuts, vegetable oil, salt, spices and flour.

The fish is cleaned, washed and dried, then cut into small pieces, rolled in flour and fried. Crushed nuts, chopped onions, paprika, garlic, tomato paste, broth and pomegranate juice are mixed and put on fire to boil. When the sauce boils, add the sea hare to it and simmer for ten minutes. Rice is a great side dish for this dish.

3. Sea hare - fish in pots

Ingredients: two fish steaks, two onions, two potatoes, one carrot, one bunch each green onions, parsley and dill, one hundred grams of cheese, fifty grams of butter, one spoon forty grams of olive oil, half a lemon, salt and ground pepper.

You need to remove the backbone and bones from the steaks and cut them into small squares. Carrots and onions are cut into very small cubes, all the greens are put into a bunch and cut in half, while the lower part is chopped and mixed with the onion, pouring over the juice from half a lemon. The cheese is cut into cubes.

Now you need to prepare the dressing. To do this, pour into the dishes olive oil and sauce, add pepper and leave for a few minutes.

Fish is placed in pots, several pieces of cheese, seven peppercorns are placed on it, half of the chopped onions and herbs, carrots, potatoes, butter are placed on top, then the remaining cheese is added, and all this is poured with the prepared dressing and placed in the oven.

Remember that the sea hare (a fish we already know) has not only excellent taste, but also great value, as it helps prevent the development of many diseases.

The harefish is a close relative of the shark and stingray. It's delicious and healthy fish. It contains a large amount of vitamins, amino acids and easily digestible protein. In our country it can only be purchased frozen. It is recommended to buy a whole carcass rather than ready-made fillets. Despite the large number of beneficial properties, its use can be harmful to human health.

A close relative of the shark has many names, one of them is the harefish.

general description

Harefish, chimera, sea rabbit - these are names of the same creature. The peculiarity of this fish is the absence of a bladder, therefore, in order to constantly stay afloat, it must always move, otherwise it will simply lie on the bottom. Sea rabbit is widely used in cooking. It is prepared in the same way as any other fish.

The fish is unusual in addition to its appearance due to the fact that she does not have a bladder and the entire skeleton consists of cartilage

The chimera has large expressive eyes and a small mouth. There are 4 beak-shaped dental plates on the upper part of the jaw, and only 2 on the lower part. The body is elongated, the thinnest part is the back part. The fins are quite large. The skeleton is not made of bones, but of cartilage.

Because of its lifestyle, the chimera is called the rat of the seas. This is explained by the fact that it feeds only on solid food, such as shellfish or crayfish.

There is a system of sensory channels on the head. The skin is soft with rudimentary spines. The sea creature has a dark brown color with a reddish tint. There may be spots on the sides, the ventral side is lighter than the whole body. An adult can grow up to 1.5 m in length. The maximum weight of the fish is 2.5 kg.

It is almost impossible to purchase a whole sea rabbit on the market. It is cut up and sold in parts. Before buying, it is advisable to look at a photo of how it should look, otherwise you risk purchasing cod or hake at the price of a chimera.

Species and habitat

Distribution area of chimeras- The Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as the Barents Sea. There are 3 varieties in total. The fish with a plow-shaped head belongs to the family Callorhynchidae. It can be found in the coastal zone. This species is distinguished by its unusually shaped snout, so the fish easily finds mollusks on the sandy bottom.

The chimera may be one of three families, differing only in head shape

The blunt-nosed species belongs to the family Chimaeridae. It lives at a depth of up to 500 m, has sensitive eyes, so it quickly notices smaller inhabitants that suit it as food.

The long-nosed chimera from the family Rhinochimaeridae can be found at quite great depths. It is distinguished by its sensitive and elongated snout, so it can find food even in the darkest waters.

Beneficial properties and harm

Sea hare fish is a rather exotic product, so before eating it, you need to familiarize yourself not only with its beneficial properties, but also with its potential dangers.

Beneficial features:

a large amount of protein, which is quickly absorbed by the body;
meat is low-calorie, so cooked fish quickly satisfies hunger without creating additional stress on the heart and kidneys;
content of vitamins D, A and E, which help eliminate toxins;
high content fatty acids which remove cholesterol from the body.

The meat of this fish has various beneficial properties, but eating improperly prepared sea rabbit can also be harmful to human health.

Dishes made from such a product can be used to prevent the development of hypertension and atherosclerosis.

The chimera has a poisonous fin and may cause an allergic reaction

Despite the large number of positive properties, hare fish can cause harm to the body. Before purchasing and preparing a chimera, you need to pay attention for the following details:

The sea rabbit has a poisonous fin. It is located on the top of the carcass. When cutting fish, you need to be very careful or buy carcasses without the dangerous fin.
The fish is quite oily. Eating it frequently can lead to excess weight gain.
An exotic product may cause an allergic reaction. Before eating, you must make sure there are no allergies. To do this, you need to try a small piece and monitor the body’s reaction.

In our latitudes, such fish is sold only frozen, so there is a risk of buying a product that has already been frozen several times. Frequent freezing not only kills useful material, but also negatively affects the taste.

Cooking recipes

There is no single price for this fish, but it will definitely cost more than regular cod. You can’t find it in every store, as it is a rather exotic product. There are decorative versions of sea rabbits that cannot be eaten. The Chimera is not a rare fish. Quite often it can be found on the menu of European restaurants. There are a lot of myths about what meat is tasteless and hard. However, it is not

Cooking recipes There is a lot of this delicacy. The easiest option is to bake in the oven. For 0.5 kg of frozen fish you will need 2 tbsp. l. olive oil, 1 tsp. curry, carrots, cucumber, olives, salt and pepper. A mixture is prepared based on curry, pepper and salt, which will be used to rub the meat. Next, you need to wrap it in foil and put it in the oven for half an hour. After cooking, the dish must be kept in foil for 10 minutes.

There are a huge number of recipes for cooking sea rabbit, but most of them can be mastered by anyone who has ever cooked ordinary fish.

No less tasty is recipe for sea rabbit in pomegranate sauce. For 1 kg of chimera you will need 1 tbsp. vegetable broth and the same amount of pomegranate juice. For cooking you also need garlic, onions, vegetable oil, nuts, tomato paste, salt and flour.

The fish is cleaned, cut into pieces, which are then rolled in flour and fried. Nuts, onions, peppers and garlic are mixed with juice and broth. Tomato paste is added to the resulting mass. The sauce is prepared over low heat, after boiling, fish is placed in it and simmered for 10 minutes. The best side dish for such a dish is boiled rice.

In terms of characteristics, sea rabbit fish is not quite similar to ordinary fish, but it is prepared in the same way as hake or cod. It is important that the chimera is fresh, otherwise the taste of the dish will be lost.

In some stores you can find exotic products that are unknown to many and therefore cause mistrust. The sea hare fish, the benefits and harms of which will be discussed, in the store may be mistaken for the more common hake or pollock, since the carcasses are sold without heads. Another name for this fish is chimera. Those who have tried this product like the fact that instead of bones, this fish has breast-like cartilage, and there are no small bones at all. The meat is very tasty and juicy.

The benefits and harms of sea hare

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the chimera was considered an inedible fish, but today in many European restaurants its fillet is considered a real delicacy. The beneficial properties of chimera fish are based on the presence of a large amount of easily digestible protein, E, D, as well as various minerals. Considering the presence of fatty acids, chimera fish is very nutritious. Many people are interested in caloric content, but 100 g of the product contains 116 kcal.

As for the harm of hare or chimera fish, some people may have an individual intolerance to the product. It is worth mentioning that the upper fin of this fish is poisonous, so you need to cut the carcass as carefully as possible. Since chimera is an oily fish, you should not eat it in large quantities.

Hare fish in pots

Ingredients:

Preparation

Remove the backbone from the steaks and cut them into small squares. Chop the vegetables and cheese into small cubes, and chop the greens. Combine the ingredients and add lemon juice. To prepare the dressing, mix oyster sauce, olive oil and add salt and pepper. put into pots, add butter and sprinkle with cheese. Pour in the dressing, place in the oven and cook at 200 degrees for 20 minutes.

1. Prepare the vegetables by cutting the carrots into strips and the onion into half rings.

2. There is no need to clean the sea rabbit. Simply washing it is enough. Cut the fish into portions. We do not cut off the fins and tail.

3. Pour vegetable oil into a cast iron pan and let it heat up. Then add half the chopped onion and carrots to the cast iron. Cover with a lid and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Place the sea rabbit on top of the vegetables. Dissolve the spicy mixture in water and pour in the fish so that it is half immersed in the liquid. Place a layer of the remaining onions on top.

5. Cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes. Attention: the amount of liquid in the cast iron will double during cooking. Add tomato paste. After stirring, simmer for another 5-7 minutes. Then turn off the stove.

6. We can serve the sea rabbit right away. Serve it with a side dish of stewed vegetables, decorated with greenery.

Cooking tips for preparing sea rabbit:

1. A sea rabbit (also called a hare, chimera) can be fried or baked. But after stewing, this fish tastes best.

2. The fish is a bit dry. Therefore, during stewing, be sure to add a little vegetable oil. It will not affect the calorie content, but will increase the taste.

3. Some types of sea rabbit, like the katran, have an unpleasant smell. To eliminate the ammonia aroma, place the fish in a chilled bowl for half an hour before cooking. lemon juice or cold vinegar water.

4. The fins and tail of the sea rabbit are cartilaginous. You can eat them. Therefore, you should not cut off these parts of the fish carcass and throw them away.

For those who choose the beaches of Cyprus for a summer holiday, I will say right away: the rabbit fish does not pose any danger. It does not burrow into sand like scorpion fish. It does not attack humans, it is in different weight categories with them, and it is found quite far from the shore. This story is mainly for those who are going sea fishing.

Actually, it was precisely because of the meeting with this strange, sperm whale-like fish that the idea was born to make a page about the dangers that await us in the Mediterranean Sea.

While walking along the beach in the fishing village of Liopetri, my sister noticed a rather large fish lying at the edge of the water. The fish looked like a small sperm whale. The first thing that caught your eye was the exquisite coloring of the fish. Velvety black leopard spots on her gray back and a smooth snow-white belly made her irresistible. The whole thing was spoiled by the upper lip, like a rabbit's, and the fish's head was about a quarter of the entire body. After taking several photographs of the exotic fish, we went to the nearest fish restaurant to conduct a survey of the local population. I really wanted to know why such a luxurious fish was thrown ashore?

The owner of the restaurant, barely glancing at the photo, immediately said his weighty “Ohi!”, which means “no” in Greek. An instantly assembled council of the owner's relatives issued a final verdict: The fish is not edible and is called a rabbit fish. With that we left. At home, after scouring the Internet, I picked up the trail of a mysterious rabbit. The Latin name Lagocephalus scleratus (by the way, Lagoscephalus is translated as hare-headed) means little to the vast majority of the population. But, strange as it may seem, many people know very well that the Japanese name is fugu. More precisely, the rabbit fish belongs to one of the many varieties of pufferfish. The British often call this fish pufferfish, puffy fish, or, in Russian, ball fish.

The most important thing is that

Rabbit fish is a poisonous fish.
This is an extremely aggressive species, displacing the indigenous inhabitants of the Mediterranean Sea.
The number of aliens in the Mediterranean Sea is growing day by day.

From the Internet and Cypriot newspapers to me

managed to extract some rather interesting facts related to fugu. Believe them or not, decide for yourself.

1. The fish arrived in the Mediterranean Sea from the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea as recently as around 2005. She successfully acclimatized and began to reproduce.

2. The Cypriot authorities have announced a reward of 1 euro for each puffer fish caught. A certain Eleni, a resident of Larnaca, earned 1000 euros in this way in a year.

3. Fugu poison does not lose its properties either during deep freezing or during high-temperature processing. Several crew members of a Ukrainian ship docked in the port of Haifa, Israel, caught, cooked and ate fugu. “Everyone died from poisoning,” it was written on the Internet. However, I received a letter from Israel, from which I learned that, thanks to Israeli medicine, fish soup lovers, fortunately, managed to survive.

4. Cyprus plans to conduct commercial fugu fishing and is looking for markets. Negotiations are underway with China regarding the supply of the delicacy.

5. Back in 1598, a law was passed requiring a chef who prepares fugu to obtain a state license to do so. It is this law that has survived all the bans and is still applied today. A Japanese chef spends 2-3 years learning how to cut fish before receiving a license. Then the chef must pass two exams - written and practical. Approximately three-quarters of those who apply “fail” the written test, which requires an understanding of dozens of varieties of fugu, including various ways"detoxication". And the remaining 25 percent are not issued licenses until they eat what they themselves prepared.

6. The program on the National Geographic channel said that fish is not at all as tasty as is commonly believed. Its meat is quite tough. So that it can be chewed, the fish is cut into thin slices and served with hot sauces.

7. Japanese tradition Eating such a dangerous delicacy is not at all associated with an unearthly taste, as is commonly believed (see paragraph 6). It's all about the narcotic effect of microscopic doses of poison on the human body. They say that “fish don’t show cartoons.” The “arrival” is different. The nerve poison tetrodotoxin in minimal doses causes something like “tetanus.” The man sees everything, hears everything, but cannot move. Resistant to temperature influences, the toxin decomposes very quickly in the human body. The art of the cook lies in precisely dosing the poison. The famous Soviet journalist, who worked in Japan for many years, Vsevolod Ovchinnikov in “The Sakura Branch” very colorfully describes his feelings from tasting fugu, similar to those mentioned above.

8. By analogy with Russian roulette, the tradition of eating fugu is called Japanese roulette. Every year, between 10 and 100 people die from fish poisoning. These are either those who cooked the fugu themselves, or those who managed to get the cook to cook the liver for them. The liver is considered the most tender part of the fugu, but at the same time the liver is the most poisonous part of the fish.

Here's the latest news from the military front.

The Cypriot authorities have increased the reward for each fish caught from 1 euro per head to 3.00 euros per kilogram of weight.
A friend who is fond of sea fishing says that the sea is simply teeming with this fish. The species is terribly aggressive, and it will not be easy for local fish to resist the unequal struggle with the newcomer if no measures are taken.

Addition to the article about the rabbit fish

The picture, taken from the Greek Internet, clearly shows the very characteristic “rabbit” nose of the fish. Thanks to him, the fish got its name and cannot be confused with any other:

Here is a leaflet issued in Greece. The leaflet says:

"Ministry of Agriculture and Food Development

Attention !

Poisonous fish.

Not edible"

Another version of the leaflet in the photo on the left, this time taken from the English site. On English language, in particular, it is written that “the fish has toxic skin and the poison does not decompose when exposed to heat treatment. Don't use fish soups, if you are not 100% sure that the fish is edible! "

And now the most important thing. A wide campaign is being carried out in Cyprus and Greece, the goal of which is to convey to every fisherman how dangerous this fish can be. But at the same time, I have repeatedly heard and written to me that rabbit fish is quite edible and they call it fish-chicken. But in all the cases known to me, the fish was carefully cut, removing its skin. Which, in principle, agrees well with the information from the English-language site, given a little. So, whether or not to eat or not eat fish, everyone decides for himself.

On August 22, 2012, the Fisheries Department visited. On the wall hangs a “portrait” of an ill-fated fish, either a rabbit or a chicken. When asked whether the fish is poisonous, the answer was not very clear. In general, either some organ is poisonous, or the toxicity of the fish depends on the season. But from which season and which organ exactly is unknown. Or maybe it’s not poisonous at all. What is certain is that: