Recipe for hare fish. Sea hare fish - benefits and harms

The sea hare is a tasty and healthy fish. It contains a large amount of easily digestible protein, vitamins A, E and D, macro- and microelements, as well as fatty acids, making meals very nutritious. The main thing is to choose the right semi-finished product. The sea hare is a fish sold frozen in our country. Moreover, it is recommended to buy a whole carcass, not a fillet. Her eyes should be transparent and shiny, and her gills should be closed and have a red color. Cutting the carcass does not take much time. Now you can start cooking.

Fish "Hare". Recipe with tomatoes

To prepare the dish, you will need to make a fillet and cut it into pieces of one hundred grams. Put rice to boil, as usual for a side dish. Cut four tomatoes into medium cubes, put in a deep saucepan. Put them out a little under the lid over low heat. Next, add six chopped garlic cloves, a large spoonful of your favorite seasoning, salt, bay leaf, dry parsley and ground pepper to the sauce. Simmer covered for another five minutes. Place the fish pieces in the pan. The dish will be ready in twenty minutes. Serve with rice and drizzle with sauce.

Sea hare (fish). Recipe with cheese

To prepare the dish, it is necessary to cut the fish into thin plates (the weight of each of them should be no more than one hundred and fifty grams). Make a breading by mixing a glass of breadcrumbs and finely grated parmesan with a pinch of salt. Beat the egg very well. First, roll each piece of fillet in flour. Then dip it into the beaten egg and finally into the breading. If desired, these steps can be repeated again. Fry for five minutes on each side. If desired, the dish can be baked in the oven at a temperature of two hundred degrees. This will take no more than fifteen minutes.

Sea hare: "Fish to beer"

To prepare the dish, you first need to make a pound of fillet and cut it into small thin pieces. The semi-finished product should not be completely defrosted. Coat each piece thickly with cayenne pepper and leave for half an hour. After the fish is completely defrosted, roll portions in cornmeal, to which it is recommended to add a little black pepper and salt. Heat a deep saucepan, add a glass of vegetable oil to it. Fry the pieces in boiling fat for three to five minutes on both sides. Then put them on paper towels for a few minutes. This will remove excess oil. This dish can be served either hot or chilled.

Sea hare: "Fish with garnish"

First you need to boil the rice, as usual. Next - in one pan, fry a portioned piece of fish, weighing no more than two hundred grams. Put mugs of one onion and cubes of four tomatoes in a deep stewpan. Simmer the sauce for five to seven minutes. Then add to it five chopped cloves of garlic, ten olives, cut into circles, salt and black pepper. Simmer the sauce for ten minutes. Spread on a plate as follows: first - a hill of rice, then - a piece of fish, pour sauce on top. Bon appetit!

What different and unusual fish exist in nature, and what names have not been invented for them! For example, a chimera fish: the name of this animal alone evokes not the most pleasant associations. And if you look at this inhabitant of the deep sea, then opinions may be divided. Some see a very cute and cute fish that looks like a soaring bird, while others see a monster. So who is she really, this mysterious marine inhabitant, who is also called by another strange name - sea hare fish.

Very close relatives of the chimera are and: they are all cartilaginous fish and have a spine made of cartilaginous tissue. Look at the photo of chimera fish and try to find similarities with sharks!

All the most interesting about chimeras

When the name chimera is mentioned, it does not mean that there is only one single species. The genus Chimera (lat. Chimaera) combines 6 species, of which the most famous is the European chimera (lat. Chimaera monstrosa) from the eastern Atlantic. There is a Cuban chimera (Chimaera cubana), which at first was taken for a European one, but was later separated into an independent species. It lives off the coast of Cuba at a depth of 400-500 meters. Other species of the genus Chimera are known from the waters of the eastern regions of the Pacific Ocean (Philippines, the Yellow Sea and the Japanese Islands).

The place of chimeras in the fish system

The genus Chimera, of which the European chimera is a representative, is included in the Chimaeridae family, in which there is another genus with species that differ from the genus Chimera in the shape of the caudal fin.

All fish of the Chimera family have a blunt snout. This is an important difference from other families of the Chimaeriformes order, among which there is a family. Nosed chimeras with a very elongated snout, and pointed at the end. And the third family is the proboscis-snouted chimeras (callorhynchus). They are distinguished by an elongated and bent down and back anterior end of the snout.

Below, in the photo, chimera fish are shown in the drawings, and you can see the differences in the structure of the snout in the representatives of each family, which were mentioned above.

Representatives of the chimera order: 1 - fam. Chimera; 2 - family. Proboscis (callorhynchaceae) and fam. Nosed chimeras.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the chimera fish is cartilaginous, and, accordingly, belongs to the class "Cartilaginous fish", which has two subclasses. Having much in common in the internal and external structure with elasmobranchs (sharks and rays), chimeras differ from them in that their upper jaw is completely fused with the skull. Therefore, they are distinguished into a subclass of Whole-Headed or Fusion-Cranial.

Appearance of chimeras

All chimeras have a characteristic body shape: valky, slightly compressed from the sides and very thinning towards the tail. In the photo of the sea hare fish (European chimera), this is clearly visible.

Other features of the appearance of chimera representatives:

• Two fins on the back, the first one is high and short, having a powerful spike in front, which together with it, if necessary, fit into a special groove in the back. The second is long and can stretch to the very base of the caudal fin and does not fold.
• The tail fin is often shaped like a long cord.
• The pectoral fins are very well developed and each of them resembles a fan in shape.
• The pelvic fins are smaller than the pectoral fins and are located near the anus, being pushed back.
• At the base, all paired fins are equipped with fleshy lobes, thin and flexible.
• The mouth located below (lower) in chimeras and has a characteristic three-lobed upper lip.
• The gill openings on the sides of the head are covered by a fold of skin supported by finger-like cartilages.
• The naked body, devoid of placoid scales, is covered with a large amount of mucus.

A spine in the first dorsal fin of a European chimera.

European chimeras - beauties or monsters?

The European chimera bears the Latin name Chimaera monstrosa, which evokes associations with some kind of monster. This fish has many names, one of the names that a chimera fish has is a hare. Perhaps this is due to the large slightly elongated pectoral fins and huge eyes. It is also called the sea rabbit fish, apparently for the same reasons.

And among the Norwegians, the chimera is the royal fish. So it is called because of the thin bone outgrowth bent backwards, which is located in males between the eyes.

A stylized image of a male chimera with a bony growth between the eyes.

The body length of the European chimera can be up to one or one and a half meters, and its tail is very long and thin, so another name has been assigned to it - the sea rat.

What color is a chimera?

Rudimentary spines are sometimes found on the bare skin of the European chimera. However, the skin looks smooth and soft and has a characteristic color:

• back in dark brown and golden hues in combination with brown and whitish, a dark brown stripe stretches along the upper back;
• the ventral side of the body is light;
• on the back of the long dorsal fin, as well as on the caudal and anal, a blackish-brown edging is noticeable.

The color image of the chimera is completed by the green color of the pupil against the background of the white iris of its huge eyes.

European chimera, photo by Roman Fedortsov, Murmansk, @rfedortsov_official_account

Distribution, lifestyle and movement

The European chimera fish is not found in tropical waters. Its range is the eastern part of the Atlantic Ocean:

• In northern waters - from the Strait of Gibraltar (coastal waters of Morocco) to the island of Iceland and the Scandinavian Peninsula with entry into the Barents Sea.
• Southern waters - off the coast of southern Africa (this information needs to be confirmed).

The sea hare fish spends most of its life at the bottom, so ichthyologists refer to it as a bathydimersal (bottom deep-sea) fish. After all, the depth at which you can meet it is from 40 to 1400 meters. But most often this species lives at relatively shallow depths: two hundred to five hundred meters (in the northernmost part of the range) and three hundred and fifty to seven hundred meters (in the waters off the coast of Morocco). By winter, it comes to coastal waters, where off the coast of Norway (where the depth is from 90 to 180 meters), a certain number of individuals can be caught by trawls.

These fish are quite gentle, they do not resist at all when caught. Removed from the water, they die very quickly. Placed in an aquarium, they do not survive well.

Way to travel

Chimera or sea rabbit fish is not a fast and high-speed swimmer, and she does not need it. See how gracefully it moves with the eel-like curve of the back of the body and tail and the wave-like flapping of large pectoral fins that resemble wings. The pelvic fins are also involved in ensuring the swimming of the fish, located horizontally, they perform the function of movement stabilizers.

Being at the bottom, chimeras can “stand” on the ground, relying on almost all of their fins: while the pectoral and ventral fins perform the function of four limbs, and the tail serves as an additional support.

The question of nutrition

This part of the article is devoted to two questions:

• what does sea rabbit fish eat;
• Is it possible to eat chimera fish, that is, a sea rabbit?

The diet of chimeras is represented mainly by benthic invertebrates. Among them are molluscs, crustaceans (mainly crabs), echinoderms (sea urchins, brittle stars). Small fish were only occasionally caught in their stomachs. When examining the contents of the digestive tract of chimeras, it was found that they do not swallow food whole, but bite off small pieces from the prey or crush it with strong dental plates.

Do people eat chimeras?

So, is it possible to eat chimera fish. There is no categorical answer to this question. Fishing for chimeras is carried out off the Pacific coast of the United States, they are caught in Chile and Argentina, as well as in the waters of New Zealand and China. Especially large are the volumes of prey in New Zealand, where representatives of the Callorhynchus family (proboscis-nosed chimeras) are caught.

Only fresh callorhynchus meat, which has excellent taste qualities, is suitable for eating. However, if it lies down even a little, it begins to exude an unpleasant smell of ammonia. For housewives, cartilaginous chimera fish, which does not have scales and hard bones, is, of course, very convenient to cook.

From the liver of chimeras, fat is extracted, which has long been known as an excellent wound healing agent.

The current trend to increase the volume of European chimera by deep-sea trawling in order to produce medicines from the liver oil of this fish has led to the inclusion of this species in the Red List of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). The chimera hare fish has a conservation status, as a species close to a vulnerable position.

The most inexperienced housewives know how to fry fish, but I will still take the liberty of writing a review on this topic. I am writing because we are talking about a fish called a chimera. In the English version, it is called Rabbit Fish, we sell it under the name hare fish, I also heard the name rabbit fish. There is a lot of information on the Internet about this fish, which is extremely contradictory. Since I cooked this fish more than once, I can say that this fish is worth a try. Not everyone likes her taste. My daughter and I like her, the cat is wildly delighted, but her husband did not like her. Since the chimera fish is sold in frozen form, it must first be thawed, I fill it with cold water and leave it alone for about a couple of hours.

The chimera fish has large fins and some kind of fins on its back, from head to tail. There are no scales on the fish and I like it, it is enough just to wash the belly well.

I cut off the fins completely and throw them away.

I cut the fish into portioned pieces, while cutting the peel.

I salt and roll each piece in flour on all sides.

I fry in sunflower oil on both sides over low heat for about 7 minutes on each side. I didn’t notice any fishy smell when frying, it smells nice.
Fish in finished form does not have a presentable appearance. It will not decorate a festive table, there is no bright crust inherent in any fried fish.

The chimera fish has absolutely no bones; instead of a ridge, it has cartilage. Too bad the photo can't show how small this cartilage is. By the way, the cat ate cartilage with no less pleasure than the fish itself.

The fish is not at all oily, it seemed tough to my husband. My daughter does not like fish and avoids fish dishes, she really liked this fish. The fish is really not very hard, but I have not eaten such a tasty fish for a long time, although I buy fish very often. I can't even compare its taste to any other fish. Although the lady in the queue (and for such a fish, when it is on sale, you have to stand in line) told me that the taste of chimera fish is similar to the taste of sturgeon. I have never bought a sturgeon, so I can not compare.
I serve the chimera fish with rice and salad, the rice blended very well with this fish.

The time indicated is only for frying fish, the time for defrosting it was not taken into account.
Bon appetit and creative culinary inspiration. I think there is a lot to try on your own. And do not rely entirely on the opinion of some people. I cooked chimera fish in a stew with vegetables, I will write a review later, as soon as I can buy a fish. Despite its not very small cost (89 hryvnia per kilogram), I am buying up a chimera fish at the moment and now I have to wait for the next delivery.

Cooking time: PT00H30M 30 min.

For those who choose the beaches of Cyprus for their summer holidays, I will say right away: the rabbit fish does not pose any danger. It does not burrow into the sand like a scorpionfish. It does not attack a person, so it is with him in different weight categories, and it is found quite far from the coast. This story is more for those who are going to sea fishing.

Actually, it was because of the meeting with this strange, sperm whale-like fish that the idea was born to make a page about the dangers that await us in the Mediterranean Sea.

While walking along the beach in the fishing village of Liopetri, my sister noticed a rather large fish lying at the water's edge. The fish looked like a small sperm whale. First of all, the exquisite coloring of the fish caught my eye. Velvet black spots under a leopard on a gray back, a smooth snow-white belly made her irresistible. The whole thing was spoiled by the upper lip, like that of a rabbit, and even the head of the fish was about a quarter of the entire body. After taking a few pictures of outlandish fish, we went to the nearest fish restaurant to conduct a survey of the local population. I really wanted to know why such a luxurious fish was thrown ashore?

The owner of the restaurant, barely looking at the picture, immediately said his weighty "Oh!", which means "no" in Greek. A council of the owner's relatives, who immediately assembled, issued a final verdict: The fish is not edible and is called a rabbit fish. With that we left. At home, rummaging through the Internet, I attacked the trail of a mysterious rabbit. The Latin name Lagocephalus scleratus (by the way, Lagoscephalus is translated as hare-headed, th) says little to the vast majority of the population. But, oddly enough, many people know very well that the Japanese name is fugu. More precisely, the rabbit fish belongs to one of the many varieties of fugu. Often the British call this fish pufferfish, puffing fish, or, in Russian, ball fish.

The most important thing is that

• rabbit fish is a poisonous fish.
• this is an extremely aggressive species, displacing the indigenous inhabitants of the Mediterranean Sea.
• The number of aliens in the Mediterranean is growing day by day.

From the Internet and Cypriot newspapers to me

managed to extract some rather curious facts related to fugu. Believe them or not, decide for yourself.

1. Fish came to the Mediterranean from the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea as recently as 2005. She successfully acclimatized and began to breed.

2. The Cypriot authorities have announced a reward of 1 euro for every puffer fish caught. A certain Eleni, a resident of Larnaca, earned 1,000 euros in this way in a year.

3. Fugu poison does not lose its properties either during deep freezing or high-temperature processing. Several members of the crew of the Ukrainian ship, which was in the port of Haifa, Israel, caught, boiled and ate fugu. "All died from poisoning" - it was written on the Internet. However, I received a letter from Israel, from which I learned that, thanks to Israeli medicine, soup lovers, fortunately, managed to survive.

4. Cyprus plans to conduct commercial puffer fishing and is looking for markets. Negotiations are underway with China for the supply of the delicacy.

5. Back in 1598, a law appeared obliging a cook who cooks fugu to obtain a state license for this. It was this law that survived all the prohibitions and is still applied. A Japanese chef learns to carve fish for 2-3 years before getting a license. Then the cook must pass two exams - written and practical. Approximately three-quarters of applicants "fail" already in writing, for the delivery of which it is necessary to understand dozens of varieties of fugu, including various methods of "detoxification". And the remaining 25 percent are not issued licenses until they eat what they themselves have prepared.

6. The program on the National Geographic channel said that the fish is not at all as tasty as it is commonly believed. Its meat is quite tough. To make it chewable, the fish is cut into thin slices and served with spicy sauces.

7. The Japanese tradition of eating such a dangerous delicacy is not at all associated with an unearthly taste, as is commonly believed (see paragraph 6). It's all about the narcotic effect of microscopic doses of poison on the human body. They say that "fish does not show cartoons." "Coming" is something else. The nerve agent tetrodotoxin causes something like "tetanus" in minimal doses. A person sees everything, hears everything, but cannot move. Resistant to temperature effects, the toxin decomposes very quickly in the human body. The art of the cook lies in precisely dosing the poison. A well-known Soviet journalist who worked for many years in Japan, Vsevolod Ovchinnikov, in his "Sakura Branch" very colorfully describes his feelings from tasting fugu, similar to those mentioned above.

8. By analogy with Russian roulette, the tradition of eating fugu is called Japanese roulette. Every year from 10 to 100 people die from fish poisoning. These are either those who cooked the fugu themselves, or those who managed to persuade the cook to cook their liver for them. The liver is considered the most tender part of the fugu, but at the same time the liver is the most poisonous part of the fish.

And here is the latest news from the front of hostilities.

• The Cypriot authorities have increased the reward for each fish caught from 1 euro per head to 3.00 euros per kilogram of weight.
• An acquaintance who is fond of sea fishing says that the sea is simply teeming with this fish. The species is terribly aggressive, and it will not be easy for local fish to resist the unequal struggle with the alien if no measures are taken.

Addition to the article about rabbit fish

The picture, taken from the Greek Internet, clearly shows the fish's very characteristic "rabbit" nose. Thanks to him, the fish got its name and it cannot be confused with any other:

Here is a leaflet issued in Greece. The leaflet says:

"Ministry of Development of Agriculture and Food

Attention !

Poisonous fish.

Not edible"

Another version of the leaflet in the picture on the left, taken this time from the English site. In English, in particular, it is written that "the fish has a toxic skin and the poison does not decompose during heat treatment. Do not eat fish soups if you are not 100% sure that the fish is edible!"

And now the most important thing. In Cyprus and Greece, a wide campaign is being conducted, the purpose of which is to convey to every fisherman how dangerous this fish can be. But at the same time, I repeatedly heard and wrote to me that the rabbit fish is quite edible and they call it chicken fish. But in all cases known to me, the fish was carefully butchered, removing the skin from it. Which, in principle, is in good agreement with the information from the English-language site, given a little. So to be or not to eat or not to eat fish, everyone decides for himself.

On August 22, 2012, the Department of Fisheries visited. On the wall hangs a "portrait" of the ill-fated fish, either a rabbit or a chicken. When asked if the fish is poisonous, there was a not very clear answer. In general, either some organ in her is poisonous, or the toxicity of the fish depends on the season. But from which season and which organ is exactly unknown. Or maybe it's not poisonous at all. It is only certain that:

1. There are a lot of fish.
2. It is industrially caught and destroyed. The state pays 3 euros for each kilogram.
3. There are people who ate it and survived.

So to be or not to eat or not to eat fish-rabbit-chicken, everyone decides for himself!

Many people are not familiar with such a sea fish as a hare fish. If you are interested in knowing what this sea creature is, then this article is for you. We will discuss whether there are benefits from this fish. We will also find out if it carries any harm to the human body.

To see this fish in full, you need to refer to the guide. The thing is, it's not for sale. You can only buy fragments of her fish body, so to speak. They are sold in their pure form. Therefore, it is very difficult to understand what kind of fish it is in its original form. A lot of deception exists on the fish counters. Since a hare is often given out as a simple hake or pollock for fish. Cod-shaped small fish are like our marine individual.

What is a hare fish?

This fish is cartilaginous. She doesn't have a bubble. Therefore, in order to stay afloat, she constantly needs to be on the move. Like the shark, this fish will otherwise just fall to the seabed. A hare is cooked like any other fish. It must be salted, then covered with flour or batter, and then fried in a hot frying pan.

Some sources indicate that this fish emits an unpleasant odor. But it's not. Although the smell of a hare is not as pleasant as the smell of cod, it does not stink outrageously. The taste of the finished fish is simply amazing. In ordinary fish there are bones, in the same cartilage. Thanks to this structure, fish meat is very easy to separate with cutlery.

Benefit and harm

Distrust of our fish is due to the fact that it is considered an exotic product, and many people know absolutely nothing about it. In fact, hare fish meat is very nutritious and juicy. This fish was considered unfit for consumption only until the twentieth century. Now it is a rare delicacy in many expensive restaurants in the world.

She is very helpful. It contains a lot of protein, which is easily and quickly absorbed by the human body. It also contains a lot of vitamins such as A, E, and D. Moreover, this fish is filled with useful minerals. Since fish contains a large amount of fatty acids, its meat is considered especially nutritious. The calorie content of fish is such that one hundred grams of its meat accounts for one hundred and sixteen kcal.

Is there any harm in eating this fish? You can only suffer if you have a personal intolerance to this marine product. Also, our hare has a poisonous fin. This is the top fin. Separate the carcass of fish because of this should be done with extreme caution. The fish is quite oily. It shouldn't be abused.

additional information

The fish has expressive eyes. Apparently, this is the reason that she was given such a name as a hare. But more than that, she does not look like an ordinary hare. Since the fish lead an unusual lifestyle, they are sometimes called the rats of the seas. They feed on solid foods such as shellfish or crayfish. The jaws of the fish are very powerful, so the catchers are very careful with this fish. The hare lays eggs. Scandinavians eat these eggs.

The price point is not defined. Fish prices fluctuate. In general, hare fish costs a little more than simple cod. But not in every store you will find our fish. You are more likely to find this delicacy in specialty seafood stores. Hare fish is also an aquarium type. It is decorative and is not eaten. This fish is very expensive.

It is believed that sellers sell fish much more expensive than the price. They may invent their own names for the hare fish to show it as a rarer and more expensive fish. Some even sell tasteless fish with tough meat, passing it off as a chimera. It is easy to fall for such a scam.

The fact that the fish has a rather funny nickname. This suggests that it is not extremely rare. Abroad, it is found in many restaurants. Do not be afraid and believe all the nonsense about hare fish that can be found in various sources. This fish is both healthy and tasty, and not very expensive.

If you have a chance to try the meat of this fish, do not deny yourself such a pleasure. Be sure to try this one. Its taste is reminiscent of shark meat. Therefore, not everyone will like it as a main dish. So, now you know what a hare fish is. You know how it is useful, and whether it can be dangerous. You have all the information you need about our exotic fish. You know that hare fish can be a great addition to your overall diet.

Recipe (video)