Recipe: Make Aunty Beryl’s “Fancy Fish and Chips” With Barramundi, Native Parsley and Baby Potatoes

Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo OAM is the kind of cook that chefs turn to. A respected Gamilaroi Elder, educator and businesswoman, she has spent years advising some of Australia’s top chefs – among them Kylie Kwong and Neil Perry – on how to cook with native ingredients.

She’s also a lifelong advocate for First Nations people; she set up classes for Indigenous women at Eora TAFE in Redfern, founded the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence’s Job Ready program, and runs her own catering business, Yaama Barrgay, which employs First Nations staff.

Now she’s channelling her decades of knowledge into an approachable recipe book. Aunty Beryl’s Cookbook is a generous collection of recipes that weave native ingredients into familiar staples. Find sections on easy dinners, feast-friendly dishes (like outback spiced chicken Marylands with roast potatoes), as well as sections dedicated to sides, salads, drinks, cakes and desserts (including wattleseed, yoghurt and ricotta cheesecake).

One of our favourite recipes is her crisp-skin barramundi with chat potatoes. In it, native thyme punches above its weight to create what Aunty Beryl describes as “fancy fish and chips”. Her recipe removes any need for busywork. “Chat potatoes, also known as cocktail or baby potatoes, are small, so they can go straight in the oven,” she writes. And if you're anything like us, you know the crisp fish skin is one of the best parts of eating barra. “By frying the barramundi skin side down first, you can crisp up the skin nicely.”

Want more free recipes? Sign up to our Cooking newsletter for weekly dishes from top Aussie and international chefs – from quick dinners to weekend projects.

Crispy skin barramundi with native parsley and thyme chat potatoes by Aunty Beryl

Serves 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients

12 chat potatoes

Olive oil, for drizzling and frying

2 tsp fresh native thyme leaves (or use regular thyme)

2 tsp fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped

4 × 230g boneless barramundi fillets, skin on

To serve

Green salad or other vegetables of choice, and lemon wedges

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Toss the potatoes with a drizzle of oil and the thyme in a roasting tray. Roast for 45–60 minutes, or until cooked through and crispy. Stir through the parsley.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tsp oil in a large frying pan over medium–high heat. Cook the barramundi, skin side down, for 3 minutes, or until the skin is crispy, then turn over and cook the other side for 3–4 minutes, or until cooked to your liking. Add a little more oil, if necessary.

Transfer the barramundi to serving plates and serve with the roast potatoes, plus green salad or vegetables. Squeeze over the lemon wedges.

This is an edited extract from Aunty Beryl’s Cookbook: Heartwarming recipes and stories of First Nations food by Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo. Published by Murdoch Books (RRP $49.99)