Eating / Cooking Sand Whiting

Sand whitings are prized for their sweet, delicate flavour.

They are a versatile fish that can be prepared in a number of ways including steaming, baking, barbecuing and grilling, with frying the most common.

Sand whiting are a moist, low oiliness fish with a mild flavour.

Their flesh colour is grey to greyish white or yellowish white and the flesh texture is soft to medium.

Steamed whiting fillets are an ideal food for children because they contain very little oil and are easily digested.

When whiting is grilled or barbecued, a salad of grapefruit, orange, lime and lemon, with a citrus and olive oil dressing, will complement the flavour wonderfully. Other suitable sauces and condiments are lemon and herbed butters or buerre blanc. Crusts of cumin, coriander and ground turmeric are also tasty.

Fried sand whiting fillets are fantastic served with chips.

Sand whiting can be used for sashimi.

Complementary flavourings for whiting are the herbs dill, basil, chives, parsley and tarragon.

The delicate flavour of sand whiting calls for subtle wines.

Sand whiting goes well with wines that have a touch of citrus such as South Australian Rieslings or a touch of spicy fruit such as blends from Western Australia (Traminer, Riesling, Semillon, Chenin Blanc).