Fish recipe?

Cafe Society
1

So I want to have fish for dinner tonight.

I only started eating fish a few years ago so I really don’t know how to cook it. But I sure do love to eat it.

I’ll go to the market to pick up something fresh … but I live in Toronto so the selection may not be all that extensive.

What should I get? I’m thinking tilapia because it’s usually available and is quite tasty. I could also be talked into some kind of seafood instead, if I can be confident that I won’t kill myself and my dining companion with it. (So, nobody say fugu. I think that’s out of my league.)

How should I cook it? What should I serve with it?

2

Nice. First an elk recipie thread and now a fish one too. Here’s a decent place to get some ideas from people who eat a looooot of fish…In Fisherman Recipies

3

If you can get it, try a swordfish or tuna steak; they’re virtually indistinguishable in flavor and appearance, but it does sound cooler to say you’re eating swordfish. You can either just fry 'em up as is or try blackening them if you have a grill. To blacken, lightly pat the fish so that it’s dry and then dip each side in a dish of melted butter. Then, librally sprinkle blackening seasoning, you can get premade mixes at most grocery stores, on both sides. To cook, place in a very hot skillet. I use cast iron skillets and wait until they’re just about white from the eat. Cook for a couple of minutes on each side until the fish is white all the way through. You need to blacken the fish outside though because it creates a great deal of smoke. Also, blackened fish is a bit spicy, but soooo good.

If you or your dining companion say you don’t like tuna and have only had it from a can, I would definately suggest trying tuna steak. It’s nothing like the crap in a can.

4

Ooh, yes I have had a delicious tuna steak, it was “encrusted” (what a word … usually “encrusted” is not something I like my food to be!) with black sesame seeds and absolutely divine. Yum.

I don’t think I’ll be encrusting anything tonight, but I may try the blackening. Thanks for the tip! Although I can’t imagine where to get blackening seasoning at Kensington Market. (If any Toronto dopers have any idea, it would be appreciated!)

If not maybe I’ll jerk it, I’ve got some jerk seasoning in the fridge already.

5

Most fresh fish (fillets) is great just shallow-fried in butter with salt and pepper as seasoning - and a squeeze of lemon/lime juice just before serving. Quick, easy, impressive and hard to get wrong - the only mistake you can make is over-cooking.

Enjoy!!

6

Here in Australia the usual choice lately is salmon. Either steaks or fillets. With the skin off you can watch it cook through in a pan or on a grill. Make up a sauce of your choice: Thai, Italian, Moroccan, Cajun and pour over the fish on a bed of noodles or salad.

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How do I know when I’ve overcooked it? This is a mistake I am sure I’ve made in the past.

8

Get a piece of fish. Throw it in a frying pan, skin side down and just watch it. You will see that it quickly becomes translucent and then starts to look like cooked fish. Push it around with a fork, break bits off and try them and keep track of the time. The whole process only takes a few minutes and you will learn a lot.

9

I meant to say that the moment it starts to break up easily is when it should be served.

10

I usually go with 6/10/400 - 6 oz. about 10 minutes at 400. This does not apply to tuna or salmon, though, as those are usually served rare or medium.

Here’s a recipe for you, too. :slight_smile:

TILAPIA IN PARMESAN HERB CRUST

4 tilapia fillets (About 6 oz each)
½ C fresh bread crumbs
2 T freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 T chopped fresh parsley
½ t herbs de Provence
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Pinch of freshly ground pepper
1 T extra virgin olive oil, divided.

Position a rack in the top third of the oven and heat to 400 degrees. Lightly oil a 9x13” baking dish.

Arrange the filets in the dish.

Mix the bread crumbs Parmesan, parsley, herbs de Provence, garlic and pepper in a small bowl. Stir in 2 t of the oil to moisten. Spread evenly on the tops of the fillets. Drizzle the crumbs with remaining t oil.

Bake until the topping is golden brown and the fish looks opaque when flaked in the center with the top of a sharp knife, about 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Serves 4

11

Lots of EASY ways to cook fish.

For one, under the broiler. Put a little oil on the fish, salt & pepper, and put it a few inches from the broiler. The rule of thumb is about 10 minutes per inch of thickness.

On the grill is nice for fish. You CAN just leave it skin side down, and take it off right when it cooks through, but I like to flip it once, to cook the outside and leave it a little rare in the middle.

Don’t overlooking POACHING. Also, very easy, and you have a better chance of leaving the fish moist.

Roasting is all right too, but if you’re going to do that, just broil it. I find frying actually to be the messiest and smelliest way to cook fish.

For starting out, I’d just season fish with olive oil and salt & pepper.

Also, tuna is good, but it’s not the easiest. That’s a fish that you REALLY don’t want over cooked. It’s usually just seared on the outside, and left rare through the middle. If you’re uncomfortable eating your fish raw, I wouldn’t suggest tuna.

That said, don’t be uncomfortable leaving fish a little rare. A salmon steak, in particular, can be done medium-rare to medium, much like a burger. Most white-fish I cook through.

Another thing about getting “fresh” fish. Sometimes “fresh” fish has been frozen and thawed, and sometimes it’s never been frozen, but it’s been sitting out a lot longer than fish that is flash-frozen on the boat, and has remained frozen until you buy it. If you thaw that out, and eat it, it’s probably fresher than most fish that you buy that’s never been frozen.

If you have a “Trader Joes”, they have good frozen fish.

I don’t know what kind of fish market Toronto has. I would think it has a good one.

As a rule, I don’t like grocery store fish.

12

I just had some tilapia this week. I steamed it in a parchment pouch in the stove. I thinkly sliced some onions and carrots and set the fish on top of a bed of them on a piece of parchment paper. Then I toped it with some more onions and carrots and some chopped tomatoes, capers, butter, dill and salt and pepper. I forgot lemon juice which I think would have made it much better. I cooked it in a 375 - 400 degree oven but I can’t really tell you the cooking time because I started with a frozen fillet and it took a little longer. I peeked at it a couple times to make sure it was done but fresh fish probably wouldn’t take more than 10 minutes cooked that way.You wrap the parchment up to form a pouch, folding and pinching the edges, basically everything steams in the pouch. I cheated on this one and just folded it up and wrapped it in foil - possibly another reason for it taking longer to cook. You can use whatever veggies and seasonings that you like.

Anyway, the fish is very moist, and the thinly sliced veggies usually cook enough to soften. I ended up with some cooking juices that, had I not been so hungry, I could have quickly put in a saucepan and thickened up to make a sauce.
I’m sure you could find more specific instructions on how to do the parchment pouch online somewhere. I’ve seen it on cooking shows so it’s not my invention.

13

Actually the method described by Wile E is practically foolproof. If you wrap fish with other moist things it will be safe. I remember my father demonstrating Fish in Lemon Butter Cooked in a Dishwasher many years ago. Not only was it funny, it was pretty damn good.

14

mmmm … thanks for all the tasty tips! Now the only question is, which recipe to choose?

A friend of mine makes quite nice fish from frozen, apparently the trick is to (a) thaw and then (b) marinate in booze, usually vodka. It takes out the fishy smell and makes it taste nice, instead of how thawed from frozen fish tastes when I make it. She then puts it on a bed of chopped veggies and roasts. Sadly I don’t have a dishwasher or I’d try that out.

I like the foil/parchment idea, sounds like it makes clean-up nice and easy!

Thanks for the recipe, Missy2u. I can’t wait to try my hand at encrusting tilapia.

15

Sorry, busy. :slight_smile:

16

:smack: Dang it.

:slight_smile:

17

I like tilapia in sweet and sour sauce:

Hard way: Make a homemade skillet version of tomato sauce–sautee onions, add fresh or canned tomatoes and/or tomato puree, herbs spices, etc. Then put in some lemon juice or vinegar and a good dollop of honey to taste to make a nice sweet/sour concoction.

Easy way: Open a jar of premade tomato sauce and add your choice of acid, plus the honey.

In either case, with the sauce hot in a skillet, lay a couple of tilapia filets in the pan, spoon the sauce over them, cover and let cook for 5 or 10 minutes.

Serve over cous-cous (I like the big Israeli-style pearl cous-cous the best, but any will do). Alternately, use rice or orzo or any other kind of starch you like. Also have a salad on the side.

Easy and tasty.

-Rick

18

You’ve probably already settled on food for this evening, so let me offer an alternative for another night. I posted a recipe (or guidelines, more accurately) for fish tacos in this thread a couple of months back. From the comments, it seems to have gone over well.

(BTW, note the sheepish addition downthread in a second post of an ingredient I forgot to mention in the original post.)

Very tasty, and extremely easy. The technique of breaking up the fillet in the pan as you fry it works well with flaky fish, like pollock as in that thread, or with the tilapia you mentioned. It doesn’t work so well with firm fish like halibut; the meat is tasty but you have to chop it before frying. For this recipe, I prefer easy and bland, so stick with the tilapia.

Try not to overload the taco with too much extraneous stuff like avocados or sour cream. For this, simple is better: fry the onion; add the fish and fry some more; add salt and cayenne and cumin, and then right at the end a splash of lime juice; spread spicy tartar sauce on a tortilla; roll up the fish, chopped tomato, cabbage, and a bit of cheese, and that’s it. Yum.