So I’m trying to eat healthier, and one way is to eat more seafood. I bought a big bag of frozen Pacific Whiting filets since they were relatively inexpensive. I had never heard of ‘Whiting’, but googling I learned that it is also known as Hake, which I had heard of but still didn’t know much about. Apparently it’s often used to make surimi, a fish paste that is then used to make fake crab and fish cakes.
So, I’m generally wondering- are there recipes that work better or worse with Whiting? Is it a mild-tasting fish? Is it good just broiling or steaming filets with lemon and minimal seasoning, like a typical white fish, or does its flavor make it a better candidate for some other type of recipe treatment?
Hake is related to cod. It’s a mild white fish. I prepare filets of fish in the air fryer. I brush them lightly with mayonnaise or tartar sauce, coat with panko crumbs seasoned with Old Bay, garlic powder, and a dash of cayenne, spray with oil, and bake in the air fryer. Just delicious!..better enjoy hake, it is sadly overfished and getting harder to find.
Really? I thought I googled that it’s one of the most abundant species in the Pacific. Seafoodwatch.org seems to give it a green light if I’m interpreting this page correctly:
Some people believe that every fish in the sea is being overfished. To some degree they’re right most of the time. The current high prices for seafood are helping though.
So I did sort of a cross between @salinqmind1 ‘s recipe above, and a low-carb almondine: I ground up almonds, peppercorns, thyme, garlic powder, salt, Parmesan and Asiago cheese in a bullet blender, coated the fillets with it and cooked them in an air fryer. The end result turned out really tasty.
Hake is, I think, a fairly sturdy white fish, so you can also do a tasty “fish and chips” sort of treatment, although that might not seem like “eating healthier” to you even if you skip the chips.
Whiting is a good fish for people who aren’t particularly keen on fish because of an aversion to the smell or texture. That’s also why it works well as a good solid crumbed fillet that holds together and won’t crumble when you tear off a piece in your fingers, and in the same way is suitable for any recipe where you want the fish to stay reasonably intact despite any rough handling.
If you use it in a marinaded dish, you’ll be tasting the marinade exclusively since it has such a mild flavour.