Let’s wing it

By Steve Bain

Oct 6, 2022

Step 1: Start with barramundi and a sharp knife.

STEVE BAIN is up to some fishy business with his home butchering lesson this month.

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My local supermarket seafood counter attendant offered to me as we chatted, that: “fish don't have wings, but we have chicken wings”.

Sadly he was serious.

I guess not everyone has caught on to this popular dish.

The wing is the triangle of beautifully sweet meat just behind the gills, and attached to the pectoral fin. Yonks ago it may have been tossed away with the head.

These days the head is used for stock or soup and the wings are a nose-to-tail delicacy.

Each person will need about three wings for an entree, or a decent stack of seven or so for a big feed.

The ideal fish wings are barramundi and/or larger reef fish, such as any of the ‘red fish’.

This is because there is a decent mouthful or two of ‘flesh’ in that little pocket attached to the inside of the fin.

The secret with ‘filleting’ the wings from the fish frame is to let the knife take the easy path; if you feel resistance that'll be bone telling you to go another way.