Frozen Fish Delivery in Sydney: What to Buy and How to Cook It

Frozen gets treated as the lesser option. With fish, it usually is not.

A fish that was block frozen within hours of coming out of the water is in better condition than one that has sat on ice in a display cabinet since Tuesday. The clock on a fresh fish starts the moment it is caught. Freezing stops that clock. Everything below follows from that one fact.

What block freezing actually does

Most of the fish in the frozen section here is sold as a block rather than loose fillets, and that is deliberate.

Water expands when it freezes. In a slow freeze, large ice crystals form inside the flesh and tear the cell walls, which is why badly frozen fish turns to mush when it thaws. A fast freeze makes smaller crystals and does far less damage. Freezing the fish inside a block of water adds a second layer of protection, because the surrounding ice keeps air off the flesh entirely and air is what causes freezer burn.

The trade off is that a block takes longer to thaw and you have to commit to the whole thing once you start. That is worth knowing before you buy.

The six lines, and what each one suits

Rupchanda, $17.00. Pomfret. Flat, silver, firm white flesh with very few bones, which makes it the easiest of these for anyone who did not grow up picking bones out. Score it twice on each side before it goes in the pan so the heat reaches the middle before the outside dries. Best shallow fried whole, or in a light curry.

Pabda, 500g block, $16.99. Small, soft, almost buttery. Pabda falls apart if you push it around the pan, so it wants a gentle hand and a short cook. Traditionally done in a thin mustard gravy rather than a heavy one, because a heavy masala buries it.

Long baim, 500g block, $15.99. Eel. Firmer and oilier than the rest, which means it holds up to a long cook and a stronger masala. The one on this list that will not fall apart on you.

Bata, 500g block, $12.99. Small carp. Bony, and the bones are the point for people who grew up with it. Usually fried hard until the small bones soften, then eaten whole.

Meni, 500g block, $12.99. Small, sweet, and almost always done as a jhol or a light curry with plenty of gravy.

Poa, 500g block, $11.99. The cheapest of the six and the most forgiving. Good for a first attempt.

Alongside these, the fish collection carries katla at $11.99, ruhu at $12.50, mrigal at $12.99 and ayre at $15.99 a kilo.

The thawing step most people get wrong

This is where good fish gets ruined.

Thaw it in the fridge, overnight, still in its packaging. A 500 gram block needs most of a day. Put it on a plate because it will leak.

Do not thaw fish in warm water, and do not leave it on the bench. The outside reaches room temperature long before the middle has moved at all, so you end up with a warm, softening outer layer wrapped around a frozen core. That is the texture people are describing when they say frozen fish is mushy. It is almost always a thawing problem rather than a freezing one.

Once it is thawed, pat it properly dry before it goes anywhere near oil. Wet fish steams rather than sears, and it sticks.

Hilsha, which is a separate case

Hilsha is the one people ask for most and it is not sold here as a whole raw fish.

What is on the shelf is Hilsha Egg at $19.99, the roe. If you grew up with ilish you will know the roe is the part that goes first at the table.

For the roe: pat it dry, then salt and turmeric for ten minutes and no longer. Then low heat and leave it alone. High heat bursts the membrane and you lose the texture that makes it worth buying in the first place.

How the delivery works

Deliveries run Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday across The Hills Shire, Blacktown, Parramatta and Hawkesbury. Free over thirty dollars.

Frozen fish travels better than almost anything else in the order, which is the quiet advantage of buying it this way. It arrives still frozen and goes straight into your freezer, with no fresh window to race.

Questions people ask

Is frozen fish as good as fresh? It depends entirely on what you are comparing. Against a fish that came out of the water this morning, no. Against a fish that has been in a display cabinet for three days, a properly block frozen fish is usually better.

How long does it keep in a home freezer? Several months if it stays frozen solid and the packaging is intact. The enemy is air reaching the flesh, which is why a block keeps longer than a loose fillet.

Can I refreeze it? Once it has fully thawed, no. Cook it. If part of a block is still solid you can return that part to the freezer, but a fish that has thawed through and been refrozen will be noticeably worse.

Which one should I start with? Rupchanda if you want the fewest bones. Poa if you want the cheapest way to find out whether you like this at all.

The six lines above sit in the frozen collection, and katla, ruhu, mrigal and ayre are in the fish collection.