Cooking: Salmon board and fillet knife

The Salmon board does all fillet jobs for any big fish, without any mess. How? It comes with a stainless steel grate-grip that keeps your fish in place.

Before you actually fillet, wash the flesh thoroughly and cut off the fins with scissors. Place the fish on one side, pressing down with your hand flat on the top side. Slice the fish up the belly from base to head, and gut the fish. Run cold water inside the bared belly, scraping away any clinging blood or membranes. If you prefer your fish headless, cut straight through the backbone to remove it.

To fillet: Rinse it off under cold running water. Lay the fish with its dark side down on the cutting board, locking it on to the steel grate-grip. Leave some skin on if poaching or grilling. Slice down the back of the head with the chef's knife, as if beginning to cleave the fish into two halves.

Arrange your thin filleting knife inside this cut, position it neatly between the fish's bones and its flesh, and cut from head to tail. Keep the bottom of the blade tight against the bones, so that these are separated from the fillet.

Make long, even strokes. Do not saw back and forth, which could result in a jaggedly edged cut. The flatter you keep your knife, and the more sweeping your strokes, the neater your fillet will appear, and the better it'll keep its shape during cooking.

When the fillet is almost free from the fish, hold it in one hand and snip it loose at the tail, holding the knife blade tilted downwards for this last cut.

Cut away the mesh of tiny bones that will edge your fillet. Once one fillet has been cut from one side of the fish, turn it over and proceed as before with the dark side up.

Available at The Living Zone for Dh440