Growing up in Muizenberg, she learned a lot about fish and fishing from her father, who is a commercial fisherman. "He grew up in Gansbaai and his father went to study at Westlake to be an electrician, so at the age of six he had to start fishing for the family's suppers," Julie says. "He also did odd jobs for the fishermen, like cleaning fish."
This love of the ocean has been passed on to his daughter, who now supplies the fresh daily catch and a wealth of knowledge to adoring clients. Julie sought to start her own business and a neighbour suggested that she sell fish. The very next weekend she set up at The Biscuit Mill, which had only been running for three weeks at that stage.
"I had never sold a piece of fish and arrived there with no clue," she says. "I was so well received though and people loved the fish. I realised I knew what I was doing from all the years of eating my father's fresh fish." She has been at The Biscuit Mill for over six years and also runs a successful home-delivery service during the week.
Your earliest memories of food? We obviously ate a lot of fish. My dad caught a big variety in those days and I remember him prepping fish at family gatherings. He used to serve everybody their favourite piece and it was always festive. Everybody used to come to our house for the fish and they still do.
When did you start making food? I started at The Biscuit Mill and I thought we'd merely be selling the fish. I was cooking purely for people to taste the differences and introduce them to the variety, but then the recipes started developing and I also got a lot of ideas from my customers.
What have you made for us? The tuna salad. It started off as a tuna burger and then people started eating less bread, so we decided to do a salad, which everybody loves. We do a tuna salad, yellowtail salad, calamari salad and salmon salad — and then there is the sticky tuna salad. When you clean tuna, there's a lot of meat left on the bone and we didn't know what to do with that because it's very thin, so you can't cook it medium rare like the rest of the tuna. It's delicious meat; the meat next to the bone is always the best. So, the recipe developed out of that. We fry it like a doughnut, take the hot fried fish and put it in a cold, sweet, sticky sauce and people go crazy for it. There's still so much I want to do with the head-to-tail movement because there's still a collar, the head and quite a lot of bits and pieces that we can still use.
What is the most popular fish? I like to promote yellowtail and angelfish. Both are local, quick growing and sustainable. Yellowtail has the least mercury content. Our tuna is all locally caught on a line and I like to promote longfin tuna, which is slightly smaller than yellowfin and is better value for money. I'm not sure if it's more sustainable, but I like to think it is because it's less in demand and not being exported as much.
Any freshwater fish? We sell local Franschhoek trout when it's available.
COOKED IN SOUTH AFRICA
Julie Carter at Ocean Jewels
Julie shares her knowledge of fish and sustainable fishing, and the most delicious fishcakes in Cape Town
Julie Carter is the contemporary face of fishmongering. Her fishcakes are the best in the city, made from a selection of SASSI green list fish she sells in her small, 30-something seater deli at the Woodstock Exchange.
Image: Felix Seuffert
Growing up in Muizenberg, she learned a lot about fish and fishing from her father, who is a commercial fisherman. "He grew up in Gansbaai and his father went to study at Westlake to be an electrician, so at the age of six he had to start fishing for the family's suppers," Julie says. "He also did odd jobs for the fishermen, like cleaning fish."
This love of the ocean has been passed on to his daughter, who now supplies the fresh daily catch and a wealth of knowledge to adoring clients. Julie sought to start her own business and a neighbour suggested that she sell fish. The very next weekend she set up at The Biscuit Mill, which had only been running for three weeks at that stage.
"I had never sold a piece of fish and arrived there with no clue," she says. "I was so well received though and people loved the fish. I realised I knew what I was doing from all the years of eating my father's fresh fish." She has been at The Biscuit Mill for over six years and also runs a successful home-delivery service during the week.
Your earliest memories of food? We obviously ate a lot of fish. My dad caught a big variety in those days and I remember him prepping fish at family gatherings. He used to serve everybody their favourite piece and it was always festive. Everybody used to come to our house for the fish and they still do.
When did you start making food? I started at The Biscuit Mill and I thought we'd merely be selling the fish. I was cooking purely for people to taste the differences and introduce them to the variety, but then the recipes started developing and I also got a lot of ideas from my customers.
What have you made for us? The tuna salad. It started off as a tuna burger and then people started eating less bread, so we decided to do a salad, which everybody loves. We do a tuna salad, yellowtail salad, calamari salad and salmon salad — and then there is the sticky tuna salad. When you clean tuna, there's a lot of meat left on the bone and we didn't know what to do with that because it's very thin, so you can't cook it medium rare like the rest of the tuna. It's delicious meat; the meat next to the bone is always the best. So, the recipe developed out of that. We fry it like a doughnut, take the hot fried fish and put it in a cold, sweet, sticky sauce and people go crazy for it. There's still so much I want to do with the head-to-tail movement because there's still a collar, the head and quite a lot of bits and pieces that we can still use.
What is the most popular fish? I like to promote yellowtail and angelfish. Both are local, quick growing and sustainable. Yellowtail has the least mercury content. Our tuna is all locally caught on a line and I like to promote longfin tuna, which is slightly smaller than yellowfin and is better value for money. I'm not sure if it's more sustainable, but I like to think it is because it's less in demand and not being exported as much.
Any freshwater fish? We sell local Franschhoek trout when it's available.
TUNA NOODLE SALAD
Serves 4
Image: Felix Seuffert
INGREDIENTS:
100ml soya sauce
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp fresh chilli (optional)
Vegetable or coconut oil, for frying
500g yellowfin or longfin tuna, cubed
Fresh coriander, for garnish
Black and white sesame seeds, for garnish
Noodles
½ pack of Chinese egg noodles (available in 500g packs at the
Chinese supermarket)
5 red, green and yellow peppers, finely diced
1 bunch of spring onions, finely sliced
60g pickled ginger, chopped
Dressing
50ml Indonesian sweet soya sauce
250ml apple juice
50ml white vinegar
50ml rice wine vinegar
150ml soya sauce
100ml oil
50ml lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, crushed
A thumb of ginger, peeled and grated
METHOD:
Bring a pot of water to boil. Add egg noodles and remove from heat. Allow to stand for 15 minutes, then rinse with cold water.
To make the dressing, mix all ingredients together. The dressing separates, so give it a quick stir or shake just before use.
Add peppers, spring onions, ginger and enough dressing to coat the noodles.
Coat the tuna in combined soya, honey and chilli.
Heat a heavy-based non-stick pan with a little bit of oil. When fairly hot, sear tuna cubes in two batches for 30 seconds each. (If you try to sear too much tuna at the same time, the temperature drops and fish will boil rather than sear.)
To assemble, noodles can be served hot or cold. Top with seared tuna and garnish with lots of fresh coriander and black and white sesame seeds.
This is an extract from Cooked in South Africa, an initiative of Wish Upon A Star, a non-profit fund-raising charity (Reg. No 2013/038478/08). The book is about memories and journeys around food and is on sale at Exclusive Books and through the website with all profits from the sales going to children living with disability. Photographs courtesy of Felix Seuffert and Cooked in South Africa.