Basic, fair priced, starter fish?

Want to start eating more fish as i do enjoy it, but i dont know my fishes and how best to use them. My only real one is salmon, but i wanna learn about others.

Also whats the best type of fish to herby bread crumb and fry up? (i like eating it that way)

Will be learning with my 6 yr old too.

my personal fav is gurnard to crumb and fry but flounder cooked whole on the BBQ are great too

Price wise gurnard 19. 95kgterakihi 22. 95 and snapper 34. 95...
For my mind. they have it around the wrong way as gurnard is one of the nicest eating fish... Being in Wellington you should be able to source Blue Cod which is one of the best eating fish around. . Hoki is cheap but only good for fish pie in my books... pay a little bit extra and get a quality fish...
Deep fry in batter and hot oil... pan fry in butter. . or in foil parcels with herbs butter and lemon...

"Coat and cook" is a cheap quick easy alternative. . butter in the pan, wet the fillets and dip in "coat and cook" and fry in butter... .
Saves the crumbing and adds a nice subtle flavour...

We like doing the crumbing tho.
Im teaching her to cook real food. So we are doing the pasta from scratch, the cookies, the roasts, the sauces etc. Now we wanna do fish :)

When making/whizzing your own breadcrumbs, add some fresh herbs from the garden. . parsley OR dill OR fennel fern and a little salt and lemon pepper. . then crumb as you normally do for a nice green tinged portion of fish :}}

Add some lemon zest too. We buy terakahi as it is a nice textured fish that holds it's shape well and doesn't fall apart as you try to turn it in the pan - cod falls apart very easily. It also has a mild flavour. Fry crumbed fish in 1/2 and 1/2 oil and butter.

Abbey_magick, this isn't an answer to your question about fish but I just wanted to say how impressed I am that you are taking the time and trouble to teach your 6 year old to cook " real food ". If only there were more parents like you who were willing to make the effort. This is one of my real cooking " hobby horses " and I could go on about it for hours and probably bore everyone stiff.

Well done to you and your daughter !

Have to agree with every word! Just climbing down from the hobby horse now!

We generally don't buy any fish over $20 a kg and have been experimenting with fish over the last few months ...
this is what we've found - monkfish is like big snapper in texture and taste, you can do anything with it.
Sealord frozen Dory is ok for putting in stirfries and sauces - chop and cook from frozen - that's often $5-6 for 500g.
Another one we like is blue moki that we got for under $20 a kg.
Lemonfish is cheap and it's shark and while it's been ok, the quality has varied enough that the last time we had it it had a powerful ammonia/metallic and we said we wouldn't eat that anymore.
Trevally is like kahawai in fishy flavour but is firm and you can do about anything with it. I like to cut it into finger sized pieces, coat it in flour and fry in rice bran oil till nice and golden. That's one of the cheapest fish - ignore any bad comments about it!
Another I would recommend but you don't see it often is Ling, it's quite a wet fish, it gives off a bit of milky liquid so is good in a sauce or fry it gently without a coating. It's usually quite a thick fillet so you can cut into smaller pieces for more even cooking. Some say you should salt it to drain the juice out but I don't.
Blue cod and deep sea cod are other useful fish, as above but rare to see.
Red cod seems to arrive in skinny bits that fall apart and we aren't keen. It's very delicate however.
Last but not least is good old hoki, but only when it looks translucent and firm, with nice thick grain (? ) rather than the skinny thin stuff from the end of the tail - have cut this into chunks and mixed with mashed potato for oven bake, fried in smaller pieces, stir fries again... .
We used to fish alot so we baulk at paying those high prices for snapper!
Going to pluck up the courage to try cooking flounder next - had some battered from Oceanz fish n chip shop and the fish just fell off the bone making it much easier to eat than I imagined. Alternatively I will end up back at fish n chip shop for more! !

Yes to Gurnard very good value and one of the best fish for frying etc dare I say better than snapper. Trevelly at its best is also one of the best fish though it deteriorates quickly so sometimes dissapointing Trevelly tmakes the absolute best raw fish if its good. Blue cod I personally don't rate highly and my wife hates it and also doesn't like the smell of it cooking. Flounder is awesome and soo easy to cook just dust in flour and fry in butter. Another cheap but delicious seafood is Squid I buy them whole and cut them up myself. Not to forget the cheapest and most popular seafood Mussels :)

I got some boarfish last week, mostly to see what it was like, as it looked nice, and its not too bad, its nearly like tarakihi, but way cheaper, it was 16. 50.
Gurnard is my favourite tho.

I agree Indy. . good for you Abbey. . :-) Your Daughter will value the skills you're teaching throughout her life. . they'll be a very special part of her growing years. .

My Daughter just turned 20, and she's learnt to cook as she's grown also. . to the extent that when I was building our new home, doing a lot of the interior building myself, and managing the project, Jenni said to me, 'Mum, I can't help with the house, how about I take over the cooking? Yes please. . and she did. . to the stage that she continued with all the cooking over the next year until she left to move away to study in February - until then I had to book my own kitchen to be able to make a meal!

She said recently that cooking with me as she grew, are part of her favourite childhood memories. And yes, I also taught my Son to cook. . it's nice to talk with him about cooking too. . :-)

For fish, I prefer gurnard, and it's great to be able to use crumbed - I use a little flour, then into egg that's been lightly stirred with a fork, then breadcrumbs. . preferably wholemeal or wholegrain crumbs. . if you want to purchase breadcrumbs, wholegrain are available at your supermarket - where breadcrumbs are on the shelves.

For a nice change, add some finely grated lemon zest to the crumbs, or a little cinnamon. . and, if any of the crumbs are left, place in a container or bag in your freezer, and you can use them straight from your freezer for the next time.

Enjoy cooking with your Daughter. . please. . tell her she's a lucky girl to have you as her Mum :-)