(Late) Sunday Shark

I put the word ‘late’ in there because this post was supposed to have been written since Sunday. Unfortunately, I was tired. Make that very tired. Aches and pains have become my norm and I am dealing with them as best as I can. There is so much I still want to do and explore when it comes to my food love and if it means falling into bed to rest a little more than usual, so be it. (The rest was good, by the way!)

That Sunday, I wasn’t in the mood for any red meat, so I decided to go the fish route with two lovely pounds of shark steaks. Normally I would have made some fried bakes to go with them and probably go crazy with some sauces, but I had already put the rice to boil and lentils were bubbling in my pressure cooker for a quick stew. I thought about how else I could present this shark and then I remembered some beer battered shark bits I had at Trotters many moons ago. Wishing I could replicate the batter, I searched in vain for beer, but there was none in the house.

As you may imagine, I had to get creative…

Washed the shark well and cut it up into 1 inch cubes.

Squeezed in the juice of one small lime, added a pinch of salt, a couple shakes of ginger powder, a dash of Angostura bitters and some chopped chives.

Next, I brought out the hot pepper, but I was going for a very mild heat with this one, so a couple of small pieces were cut off the end and I didn’t include any seeds. Using a fork to hold it, I minced the pepper pieces as finely as possible.

Into the shark they went, then I let it marinate for about 20 minutes. (Kept the lime pieces in there too; it adds more flavour!)

Now for the coating. Into one cup of sifted flour – yup, I said sifted – I added in a teaspoon each of salt, black pepper, ginger powder, onion powder and dried parsley.

Everything was whisked together well. I then dropped in a few pieces of shark at a time and shook them around to coat them evenly, and they went on a separate plate to wait to be fried.

Poured in about 3 cups of soya oil into my pan and let it heat up. To test the oil, I used a stray bit of the shark itself. (As you can see, it was ready for action.)

So I placed the pieces into the oil and let them cook for a couple minutes on one side, then flipped each piece over when I saw they no longer looked ‘white’ on top.

(Loved the golden colour!)

Out came the first batch… couldn’t resist taking a bite. And notice how the flour formed a tasty coating… yummy! So, I continued frying them in batches until all were done and I had a lovely bowlful of fried shark bits.

Here’s the finished shark!

Hardly had I finished making these when I heard my child say, “What are those? Shark nuggets?”

Before I could even answer, she had absconded with two ‘tasters’ and loudly gave her stamp of approval.

“Oh gosh… mummy… these taste GOOD! What did you do to the shark?”

“I tried something different, that is all,” I had replied.

“Hmm! Well, mummy, these nuggets rock. Poi-poi! Bess chef getting on!” And she proceeded to dish out her Sunday Lunch.

So, thanks to Leja, I was able to christen this recipe as Shark Nuggets and they were a definite hit. They would make a great appetizer as well, paired up with some tamarind sauce or garlic sauce. If you’d like the full recipe, just message me here for a copy and you can try it out for yourself.

In the meantime everyone, enjoy the rest of the week and like I always say…

Don’t forget to mind the pot!