Black Pomfret

Black Pomfret

[C. Parastromateus niger]
Actually not a Pomfret but a Pompano (the two families look a lot alike) and a very good eating fish. This Indo-West Pacific fish can grow to 29 inches but the photo specimen was 10 inches and weighed 12 ounces. Though highly commercial this is a fast breeding fish and not considered threatened,

This is a very good eating fish with mild white flesh that holds together well for all forms of cooking but flakes easily on the plate. Because the skin shrinks little it is an excellent fish for baking or steaming whole or pan dressed.

Cleaning this fish presents the usual problems with a very deep bodied fish. If you don't intend to cook head-on you should cut the head off immediately (make cuts around the collar, then cut the spine from the side) to make cleaning easy. If you do clean head-on, use the bones as a guide because the flesh is very tender and you can easily gouge out more than you intended.

This fish is covered with smallish scales that scrape off easily without too much flying about. It's easy to fillet, and when you get to the rib cage you can pretty much pull the fillet off the ribs. Some ribs may break off but they're easy to remove from the soft flesh of the fillet. Yield is good with a 12 oz fish yielding 6 oz of skinless fillet (50%).

The skin can be removed by the usual long knife and cutting board method keeping the blade very neutral in pitch because the skin is tender. It does not shrink much when fried so fillets can be fried skin-on. Heads, bones, fins and skins make an excellent mild clear stock with almost no oil - one of the best for soup.