Lionfish ceviche.....mmmmmm

[DiveonUtila]

For those of you that have been diving around the Caribbean recently you will probably have all been witness to some sort of Lionfish control programme. Utila's was initiated by UCME (Utila Centre for Marine Ecology) and for the past 9 months or so, the dive centres on Utila have been specially licensed to use a simple Hawaiian Sling, to be used only by dive professionals in an attempt to control the Lionfish populations on the dive sites, providing a safe haven for juevenille native fish species.

The trouble is, the ones we are bringing up are on the small side and not really big enough to make a fillet! (bearing in mind that this can be seen as a good thing, it could possibly show that the control programme is working in preventing the Lionfish from growing to adult/ breeding size).

So, what to do with the smallish Lionfish? Well what we have been doing at Deep Blue Divers is freezing the small ones until we have enough, then filleting them and making them into ceviche. And man, it tastes good!!
Lionfish really is a delicious fish! And stands up to ceviche well, with a firm, buttery tasting flesh.
Getting the locals to eat them however is another matter! I feel this is possibly to do with the "size matters" issue which leaves them a little stumped as to what to do with the smallish fish?
When we collect enough Lionfish here at Deep Blue we are planning on making ceviche to share with the locals, in an attempt to show and share how delicious and plentiful Lionfish are. Perhaps with a little persuation we can start to really make use of this abundant resource and do a bit of good along the way.
Freezing the fish before processing minimises the venom after a couple of days which hopefully will be seen as encouraging for those who are afraid of being stung (so far, we have had no casualties here and are catching on average about 40 Lionfish a week).

Some good news is that the fisherman over on the Utila Cays seem to be interested in what to do with the Lionfish (they have been mentioning that they are bringing them up in their pots but were unsure what to do with them).

So, Lionfish ceviche is on the menu!

Why don't you try it and see! (and let us know what you think )

 

[Doc]

When we collect enough Lionfish here at Deep Blue we are planning on making ceviche to share with the locals, in an attempt to show and share how delicious and plentiful Lionfish are. Perhaps with a little persuation we can start to really make use of this abundant resource and do a bit of good along the way

Some good news is that the fisherman over on the Utila Cays seem to be interested in what to do with the Lionfish

This is nothing but excellent news.

 

[jupitermermaid]

Great idea! I've been just pan sauteeing the little ones for a quick snack, but freezing them until there is enough for a meal is an excellent idea! If the real little ones are too much of a bother to keep, I'd snip off their spines with scissors, slit the spine and leave it for a curious eel or GG to try out. Do you have a minimum size that you'll keep?

And......does this mean we may get a lion fish meal the next time I visit Deep Blue????

 

[DiveonUtila]

Funnily enough, out of the 9 we caught today, 5 were big fatties, one had an egg sack. Usually after a kill we'll leave them on the bottom if they're smaller than 6cm as it's too much hassle for not a lot. The rest we freeze until its ceviche time.
Mashing them up a bit (a bit barbaric some may say, but neccessary) gets their scent into the water and helps the native fish become more use to them. We've had some great experiences of Yellowtail snappers taking the dead Lionfish off our spears! And Queen triggerfish love to eat them too, down in one. I find with Eels that they are a bit too shy to have any steady results.

Have you ever analyized their stomach contents? I am morbidly fascinated by this! Today, 5 fish of about 3cm each came out of the stomach of a Lionfish that was about 14cm! We recognised some as juevenille Parrotfish, which is very sad as Parrotfish are so important to the coral. It truly makes you wonder just how many jeuvenille fish the buggers are eating

 

[RTBDiver]

Good that some are taking advantage of the lionfish dining experience, I thought about this last week when i saw this news story on the local news in Miami Solution To Lionfish Invasion: Just Eat It - Miami News Story - WPLG Miami

 

[jupitermermaid]

Funnily enough, out of the 9 we caught today, 5 were big fatties, one had an egg sack. Usually after a kill we'll leave them on the bottom if they're smaller than 6cm as it's too much hassle for not a lot. The rest we freeze until its ceviche time.
Mashing them up a bit (a bit barbaric some may say, but neccessary) gets their scent into the water and helps the native fish become more use to them. We've had some great experiences of Yellowtail snappers taking the dead Lionfish off our spears! And Queen triggerfish love to eat them too, down in one. I find with Eels that they are a bit too shy to have any steady results.

Have you ever analyized their stomach contents? I am morbidly fascinated by this! Today, 5 fish of about 3cm each came out of the stomach of a Lionfish that was about 14cm! We recognised some as juevenille Parrotfish, which is very sad as Parrotfish are so important to the coral. It truly makes you wonder just how many jeuvenille fish the buggers are eating

I didn't know about the "mashing" part. Thanks...will do that from now on. I was diving with a friend today and he caught two keepers and a tiny one. We just cut the spinal cord on the tiny one and released him after he was dead. We'll try mashing them up from now on. We have lots of Yellowtail around, and if they want to eat them, let's give them a nice little snack....:cool2:

 

[DiveonUtila]

Jupiter- I would LOVE to hear how you go with the Yellowtail!

 

[fab50diver]

Save some for me! I LOVE ceviche! I'll be there from the 19th-26th!

 

[DiveonUtila]

I honestly think that this ceviche with Lionfish is some of the best i've had.
I will try and save some but it is so good it doesn't hang around for long!

When we make it for the locals, i think it will be best not to tell them what it is at first as they are so weirded out by it (one of my divers told me that in Cuba, they throw the dead Lionfish to the side of the road. Big fatties too! Crazy, what a waste!).
I might say something along the lines "this is a new type of fish, would you like to try some?"

 

[DandyDon]

The flip side: Lionfish and Ciguatera, the Facts have Changed | The CORE Foundation

How bad is ciguatera? Ciguatera - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I think I'd prefer DCS!