How to Defrost Your Seafood...

Remove the packaging, place the fillet on a suitable plate with a couple of sheets of kitchen towel underneath, cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for 12-24 hours until fully defrosted. This method protects the fish, draws away any excess moisture from the flesh and ensures the quality.

In the fridge in vac pack

You can also defrost the fish in its packaging with fair results. In this case cut off just one corner of the pack and position it so that the water can drip out of the hole you’ve just made into a bowl.

Under a cold tap

If you are in a hurry, keep the fish in its packaging and run it under COLD (never warm!) water. It’s important to leave the packaging on and check there are no holes. If the water comes into direct contact with the flesh it will rinse out quality and flavour.

In Microwave

Remove all packaging, use the defrost function and proceed very cautiously, inspecting after every, say, 60 seconds.. Be very careful not to start cooking the fish.

To enjoy sashimi at its best, remove from pack, wrap in 2-3 layers of kitchen towel and defrost overnight in your fridge.

Under running water (about 5 minutes for a typical saku)

Place the sashimi (with vacuum packaging) under a running cold water tap. When defrosted, remove saku from packaging and gently dab away moisture with a paper towel.

The ideal way to defrost prawns is in the fridge in a sieve or colander over a bowl. Covering them whilst doing so (eg with a plate) will prevent them absorbing fridge smells. Most prawns have a protective ice ‘glaze’ which melts away during the defrosting process to form a pool of water. The colander-over-a-bowl method ensures the prawns do not end up sitting in this water (which would damage both texture and flavour).

In a hurry?

You can also use the two other methods described above, ie using running water or the defrost program of your microwave. Be sure to follow all the cautions set out above.

We sell these two kinds of prawns frozen together in a block because this ensures their delicate legs and other appendages stay attached to the body. If you don't want to use the whole block at once, it appears to be inconvenient. But in fact it's very simple to separate out some for now and keep the rest for another day.

Remove the block from its packaging and hold it under a cold running tap, directing the water to the spaces between the prawns. After about two minutes, the ice you have been targeting will have melted and the prawns will begin to drop off. At this stage, all the prawns are still frozen. Take what you need for now and defrost as normal. Wrap remainder and return to freezer.

Normally we advise against defrosting by water unless the fish is well packaged. But your prawns are packaged by their shells. This experience will not hurt the meat inside.

If your fish is too big to defrost in your fridge, meaning you must defrost on kitchen surface, the thing to watch out for is ensuring it does not reach room temperature. It must stay chilled. You can slow down the defrosting by:

Keeping it in the outer box in which we delivered it (or wrap in several newspapers)

Adding picnic cooler blocks into the packaging. If you have enough blocks to keep recycling them, you can keep the fish chilled for a few days by this method.

If you're in a hurry, you can thaw the fish in cold water in the intact vacuum pack. If it's not too large, put the package in a pan under running water so it's in an ever-draining reservoir. This works surprisingly quickly. Use cold water not warm!

UNLESS THE DIRECTIONS STATE "COOK FROM FROZEN", all these items should be placed in their packaging in the fridge for 12-24 hours until fully defrosted and then cooked and consumed within 48 hours.

IF YOU ARE GOING TO SERVE THE POTTED PRODUCTS HOT, simply turn them into a saucepan whilst still frozen and heat gently until they are at your desired temperature.

If you proceed very carefully, you could also try the running water or defrost-in-a-microwave methods on these items.