So I went to the market this morning and on a whim I bought a few fillets of blue grenadier. Now that I am home, I realize that I am pretty much clueless about cooking fish (save from deep-frying it out of existence).

What do I do?? How can I minimise the likelihood that I'll fuck it up?

light spices and lime.

I usually use things like cumin and coriander if using dried or fresh coriander, flat leaf parsley, olive oil, lemon, chilli, paprika and dry cumin/coriander, process into a paste and marinate for 20min then BBQ.

It's a light flavoured white fish.

I would cook it one of two ways.

1. Slice up a small birds eye chilli (minus seeds), some grated of finely sliced ginger and some crushed garlic. Put the fish on a piece of foil over twice the length of the fish. Top with diced ingredients and the juice of a couple of limes. Fold the foil over the top and seal by folding the corners so it makes a parcel the fish can steam in. Cook in the oven on about 190ºC for about 20-40 minutes depending on the size of the fish.

2. Coat the fish in a little flour then shallow fry with a knob of butter and lemon juice. Plain and simple and my favourite way to have really fresh white fish.

k_x oxo

Can't go wrong steaming fish with ginger, shallots, chilli and soy

The title made me think of this:

Media Player

Red Dwarf - Cat Fish - YouTube

its best in a tomato marinara sauce on rice

Quote:

Originally Posted by krafty_x

It's a light flavoured white fish.

2. Coat the fish in a little flour then shallow fry with a knob of butter and lemon juice. Plain and simple and my favourite way to have really fresh white fish.

k_x oxo

Winner, although I may take brackos advice and chuck in just a smidge of paprika in the flour. Will post back results.

So, I cooked it. Skin side down for about 3 minutes, then attempted to flip it over and it was a shambles. Fell apart all over the place. Skin stuck to the pan. No structural integrity whatsoever. Tasted good but looked like Fukushima.

Any tips how to avoid this kind of debacle in the future?

Non stick pan and a bit of butter and/or olive oil. Gently move the fish from side to side in order to stop it sticking.

this is exactly what i did, and the pan is one of them swiss diamond jobs so even blu-tack doesn't stick to it.

Heaps of butter too. as soon as I touched it, it fell apart (didn't even get a chance to flip it). Dunno what the problem it

If you're cooking fish with skin on it you really need to let it go until the skin is well cooked/crisped up first before you turn it, then it won't stick on that side. ie. cook it 80% on that skin side, and just flip it and do it for about a minute or so on the other side.

also dabbing it dry with kitchen paper towells can help. getting good crispy skin can be tricky ..you gotta have a few fails to get it right. i think when you see a really brown crispy thick skin like blue eye trevalla etc usually theres a decent amount of olive oil in a small pan...you get the oil hot then put fish in . maybe even bake instead of flipping. maybe hte fish you got just isnt suitable for this kind of cooking.

my fail safe way to cook fish is like this : oil and/or butter in pan - add fish - after 1-2 minutes chuck in whatever flavours you feel like : ginger , garlic , spices , herbs. ...then deglaze pan with chicken stock and lemon juice or a slice of lemon.. put lid from small pot over fish and let juices/stock steam ..you can put whole pan in oven st this stage especially if big fillet. eat.

Butter/oil not hot enough?

Flipped the fish too early as emsk said?

Jiggling the fish when you first put it in can also help it not stick.

k_x oxo

hmm, maybe the butter was not hot enough....

Thanks for the tips everyone... I'll grab some more fish next payday and try again.

stay tuned for the next episode of Fish!

Quote:

Originally Posted by phelon

Can't go wrong steaming fish with ginger, shallots, chilli and soy

if you can't be bothered using a pan, make a marinade with above type ingredients then make a parcel with aluminium foil and whack into the oven until cooked through ^-^

Blue Grenadier is best in l light batter and quickly deep fried.

For Whiting fillets I usually just dust in flour and deep fry for no more than about 30secs. So damn good.

I buy a whole salmon about once every 4-6 weeks, cut it into nice steaks and then freeze. Probs eat it about tweice a week.

As for the rest, I usually steam or grill most other fish. Barra being one of my fav's.

Also like to stuff whole fish with some lemon or herbs and bake it in the oven. So good.

We've been catching trout most times we fish this winter, gonna invest in a smoker. Anyone got experience with these?
Otherwise they've been a treat fried or baked with butter n herbs

Buying a whole salmon and freezing is a great idea...I wish my freezer was bigger. When I used to run a restaurant we did this and it works out to about $5 a portion ....plus Salmon seems to come out of the freezing / unfreezing situation much better than a lot of other stuff

interesting ... I always considered fish unless snap frozen was no good.

Some freeze better than others, salmon is fine if you freeze it, as grapsta said. The firmer or oily fishes are usually OK. I find flathead freezes OK too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anja

We've been catching trout most times we fish this winter, gonna invest in a smoker. Anyone got experience with these?
Otherwise they've been a treat fried or baked with butter n herbs

My taller half built a smoker out of a 44 gallon drum and it is awesome. Smoked trout is one of our favourites. It needs to be brined for about 24 hours beforehand. Tastes delicious simply smoked or smoked stuffed with some lemon slices.





k_x oxo

Quote:

Originally Posted by Weinertron

So, I cooked it. Skin side down for about 3 minutes, then attempted to flip it over and it was a shambles. Fell apart all over the place. Skin stuck to the pan. No structural integrity whatsoever. Tasted good but looked like Fukushima.

Any tips how to avoid this kind of debacle in the future?

hotter pan to start with and less cook time perhaps

always less cook time with fish imo

also, always make sure your fish is padded dry with paper towel before dusting it with flour/herbs/spices - i use a freezer bag, chuck in a heaped teaspoon of corn flour (depending on how much fish you have, you might need more/less), bit of ground corriander and a bit of cayenne pepper, throw the fish in, give the bag a shake (with as much air in there as possible), then straight in the fry pan with a bit of olive oil

works every time and i have a stainless steel frying pan too, non of this fancy schmancy non stick crap

my trevally tonight is so going to stick to the pan after posting that

haha. probably.

Omg krafty, that looks brilliant, i'll only be lookin at small smokers

is that a cold smoker Krafty?

Anja, I've done hot smoking in the wok and it turned out quite well (apart from the smoke alarm going off 3 times). I'm sure google will give a better explanation but foil in the bottom of the wok, lid on, turn it on a low heat (for gas) and wait until it starts to smoke. too high and you can wreck the wok, if it's a teflon coated prossibly google for special requirements.

ours turned out quite nice, but by the 5th day of the flat stinking like smoking chips it was more effort than reward. if you can do it on the BBQ that would be a much better idea!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bracko

is that a cold smoker Krafty?

Nope. Hot smoker. The fire basket sits in the bottom and the vents control the temperature.

For cold smoking we've used the bbq and a carboard box. Some of the smoke needs to escape because you don't want stale smoke flavouring your food. BBQ works better you just need to wedge the lid open a little.

k_x oxo

I'll just be getting a stainless one from a fishing or outdoor shop I think.
That big one of yours certainly looks the goods though

Yeah it wasn't that bad, perhaps the memories of my ex's whinging are stronger than the situation really was.

As long as you have windows and extraction its pretty straight forward doing it in a wok. FYI throwing the smoking chips in the bottom of the oven while doing American ribs, all sorts of win.

Fry it on the barbie with garlic, pepper and salt. Will cook up a treat

Krafty... out of all the years reading these forums your dinner table sounds like it is solid every night of the week. Very jealous and well done.

Am i the only one who cooks Salmon Skin down until crispy, flips to flesh side on high heat until the other side is golden and finishes it off in the oven at 180 degrees for 3-4 mins? Always feel like I have more control in a steady dry heat rather than a direct heat on one side to get it moist and flakey.

salmon is best on a coal BBQ. true story

Tommy Rough's are the bomb on a BBQ too. Nothing beats Sardines though (pitty we get shit frozen ones here)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ADz_M

Am i the only one who cooks Salmon Skin down until crispy, flips to flesh side on high heat until the other side is golden and finishes it off in the oven at 180 degrees for 3-4 mins? Always feel like I have more control in a steady dry heat rather than a direct heat on one side to get it moist and flakey.

I do that too, about 5 mins skin side down and about a minute on the other side before going in the oven

I chuck rosemary on salmon then pan fry or bbq, I mite try this finish off in the oven they do it on tv a bit... Im a big fan of kingfish-grilled then soy, corriander, chilli mmmmm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Portal

salmon is best on a coal BBQ. true story

Tommy Rough's are the bomb on a BBQ too. Nothing beats Sardines though (pitty we get shit frozen ones here)

Sardines are way too fishy I reckon and I like most fish

Simple but tasty, similar to some of the above posts.

Ingredients:
White fish fillet
Shallots
Ginger (grated)
Garlic (crushed, grated)
Light soy
Dry white wine
Chili (finely sliced)
Al-foil

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. On a flat baking tray create a small pouch out of foil for the fish to go into. Place equal amounts soy sauce and wine on the bottom of the pouch to cover the base of the fillet. Place fillet on top then add a small amount of each liquid to cover. Then completely cover with predominantly ginger and shallots, then garlic and chili, adding a further small amount of liquid over the top (third set of liquid optional).

Seal the pouch & place in the oven (middle tray) for 15 minutes. If more time is required should take no longer than an additional 5 minutes.

**Edit** same thing Phelon posted + instructions.

just had marinara mix with a supermarket tomato pasta sauce and pasta, lots of black pepper and a bit of chicken stock-damn tasty

Quote:

Originally Posted by navskore

Sardines are way too fishy I reckon and I like most fish

Not the good ones. The only decent Sardines we get here are brought in frozen, and they are not even that good.