Written by Salts Cafe Hervey Bay
We start by grilling our local fish. We aim to use fresh, local seafood in all of our dishes and
in the case of the platter, we’re using locally sourced barramundi at the moment, however
as the season finishes up, we’ll be looking at other local fish available to us.
Once our seasoned fish is seared on both sides, it gets topped with a little butter and
finished in the oven until perfectly cooked. While the fish cooks in the oven, the rest of our
seafood is prepared.
Our Thai inspired fish cakes are next on in the progression. These blends of our local fish,
red Thai curry, lime and coriander are grilled to perfection and will be finished around the
same time as the fish is. You want to grill these on a medium heat to ensure you get a nice
colouring on the outside but not some much as to burn the sugars in the fish cake.
Our seafood platter also comes with local prawns (6 of) and these are seared on the grill
and finished in our delicate Thai butter. In the progression of our perfectly cooked seafood,
the prawns will go on once the fish cakes are half to two-thirds cooked. After about 1-2
minutes, flip the prawns and add 4 Hervey Bay scallops to the grill.
This is the stage where we also start frying our Spanish style calamari. Turn the scallops
over after 1-2 minutes and lift the meat away from the shell. This ensures that the scallop
doesn’t go POP due to steam build up under the meat, it also makes for easier eating later.
Once the scallops juices have been bubbling for about 15 seconds or the meat is no longer
opaque, they are done. Remove them from the heat and top with the melted Thai butter.
All of our seafood will be perfectly cooked now, ready for plating. We serve our beautiful,
fresh seafood with our favourite crinkle cut fries, a refreshing garden salad dressed with
our homemade balsamic dressing, house made tartare sauce and garnish the plate with
a pretty grilled lemon.
And there you have it, our beautiful, fresh and local seafood platter for 2.