Barramundi for dinner

We went to the market today with our British visitors and, of course, did the fish section. And since we don't get such choice in fish here in Eltham we decided to have fish for dinner. But what fish? How to choose? So we dithered, passed over the rockling which seemed to be the fish of the day, and marlin - because I feel a bit guilty about marling, and settled on barramundi - which is very Australian and most likely farmed.

Aboriginal legend has it that the barramundi was formed when two young lovers who had defied the elders of the tribe who wanted the girl to marry an older man. The two young lovers ran away, were chased and cornered, tried to fight by casting spears at the tribe, but eventually ran out of spears and so jumped into the sea where they became the first barramundi. Some Aboriginals therefore believe it has aphrodisiac qualities and call it passion fish. Barramundi actually means large scaled silver fish.

It comes from the northern part of Australia and around south-east Asia. It can be very large, but the one I bought today is somewhere between 1 and 2 kilos in weight. I hope it will be big enough!

Australis, who farm barramundi have an excellent website that will tell you everything about barramundi, with recipes too, and here are just a few things I gathered from there. It's a kind of perch or sea bass I think and it spends most of its life in freshwater, and estuaries but begins in the sea. Some of them must spend time in the sea though as the website said that they can live in the sea - and indeed people seem to catch them there.

Virtually all barramundi are born male, then turn into females when they are three to four years old, which means that females can only be courted by young males. They are called barra for short. Well Australians abbreviate everything!

I think there is a bit of an argument as to whether freshwater or seawater barramundi taste best. I should have asked what mine was, but am guessing estuarine and farmed.

It's the white fish with the highest Omega-3 content and is not as calorie heavy as salmon and other such fish. It's also low in Omega 6 - which is good.