Janet's Journal

Baby barracuda are a saltwater fish found in the warmer coastal areas of the world’s ocean.  They are line caught all round the coast of Sri Lanka.

Fully grown barracudas are fearsome predators and although popular for big game fishermen they can be poisonous to eat.  The get a build up of ciguatoxins in their bodies and these are not destroyed by heating or cooking.

The best size is about 30cm long.  They have tasty, sweet flavoured oily flesh.

I get mine from the boat, fresh from the sea.   Rainbow coloured shiny skin show how fresh they are.  All that needs to be done is scrape the scales off and gut them.

One of my favourites ways is to deep fry the pieces,  then put them into a clay pot with some coconut milk, sliced onion, chopped garlic, chopped green chilli, chilli powder and some salt then cook for 5-10 minutes.

Sometimes I leave them whole, score the sides and season well then grill or bake.  They only take a short while to cook.

Also, you can cut them into 2-3 inch long pieces and deep fry until the skin is crispy.

They have a thick centre bone so with care you can tease the flesh away end enjoy!

At the time of posting this there is the catastrophic fire on a container ship just 9 kilometres north west of Colombo. Poisonous chemicals are leaking into the sea and fish are dying. It will be a long time before any fishing can be done off the Negombo coast.