The Greatest Meal On Earth website has a handy table on New Zealand fish. All the basics about 60+ local seafoods including characteristics of the meat and how to cook each kind. If you come across an unfamiliar fish at the fish markets you can count on this table to tell you what to do with it. I especially like how you can sort by each of the categories. For example, you can choose to view all local seafoods that are eaten raw. There are 16 of them and of those, there is only 1 seafood that is not cooked at all. That would be kina.

A Ruby is not a jewel.

The other day at the fish shop, I spied some pretty looking Ruby fillets. I’ve never cooked Ruby before and I didn’t know what to do with it. Lucky for me the table recommends: Poach, Smoke, Steam, Bake, BBQ, Casserole, Fry. Which pretty much means I can do whatever the hell I want with it except eat it raw. So I pan fried these for dinner with plenty of butter and herbs and finished them off with cream. Served up with creamy mash, peas and roasted cauliflower, this was a yummy no-need-for-teeth kind of dinner.

A Chrysanthemum is not a flower.

I still had a little bit left so the next day I made a quick fish and Chrysanthemum noodle soup. The Chinese eat Chrysanthemum leaves, which they called Tong Ho. Edible Chrysanthemum has quite strong herby perfumy flavour which I love and goes well with a strong tasting fish.

A little chicken bouillon, a portion of rice noodles, chopped pieces of Ruby fish and chrysanthemum went into a pot which I brought to the boil and simmered for about 5 minutes. If you chop everything and put it into a pot, cover and refrigerate the night before, all you have to do is pop it on the stove morning. I don’t often eat breakfast, but when I do, I’m a breakfast soup kind of girl. I feel good after a bowl of soup and it keeps me full until it’s time to dig into lunch. I also suspect that I’m dehydrated in the mornings, so this brothy breakfast can’t hurt.