I hate the majority of seafood. Always have. The only seafood I do like is shrimp wrapped in bacon and BBQed, and alligator…hell, alligator might not even be considered seafood for all I know. I’m not even sure why other people eat the stuff. It always tastes like, and smells like, fish to me. That’s never really a pleasant experience in my book. And why is it that when someone cooks really, really good seafood, they say it’s good because it “tastes just like chicken”? If chicken tasting fish is the best seafood, why not just eat chicken? You would save a few dollars.
But there is the possibility that there is some good in it, and maybe it’s a taste I can aquire. For that reason, my brother is coming down in half an hour and going to the local grocery store with me to buy a pound or two of either salmon or tuna. Niether one of us have the slightest clue how to cook seafood, and I could really use an idea or recipe to turn whatever hunk of meat I buy into something that will change how I see and taste fish. I’m going into this with an open mind and some amount of excitment.
Culinary pros, lend me your tongues and fingertips! Heed my cry; I need cooking advice and fast!
Fish needs to be cooked until the flesh is firm and moist. If you overcook, it gets dry and loses flavor.
Tuna and salmon are good on the grill; cook it about five minutes a side. To check for doneness, pierce it with a fork and see if the flesh breaks off in small, moist flakes.
Shrimp wrapped in bacon and barbecued and alligator? Man, are you missing out.
Since you don’t like ‘fishy’ fish, try tilapia filets. Very mild fish, faintly nutty flavor, very versatile – good baked, poached, deep fried, blackened and grilled and receptive to lots of herbal seasoning, from garlic to lemon to curry to cilantro. It’s the chicken of seafood – very safe choice.
Another easy method of preparing tilapia: is cut the filets into nugget-sized chunks, mixing them in a thick beer batter and deep frying at about, oh, say 375 degrees for no more than 4-6 minutes. Drain on paper towels, eat with garden salad and breadsticks.
The general rule of thumb for grilling salmon or any fish for that matter would be for approximately 5 minutes per 1/2 inch of thickness on high after the grill has heated up. I grill 1-inch thick fish steaks or fillets for approximately 9 minutes as I like it rare to medium-rare. As a previous poster said don’t overcook as it will dry it out.
Thanks for the help everyone. The responses didn’t come in soon enough for me and my brother to use them last night, but that’s no problem. I can put these tips to use Monday, after I come back from Wet N Wild. That would be fitting.
I don’t actually have a grill, so anything I cook will be on the stovetop. Does cooking salmon or tuna in a pan vary too far from setting the stove on a medium to high setting and using olive oil and a few spices and vegetables? Or are there any alternatives to this method you would reccomend? Perhaps a baked dish would be better?
Fried fish doesn’t sound bad either. But what is beer batter?
Grilled fish sounds real good too. Perhaps I should have my roomates pitch in money so we can all own a kickass grill. Who doesn’t like a BBQ?
Rather than pan-frying on the stovetop why not broil, can be just as good as grilling.
Are you going to be using skinless fish steaks or fillets with skin? If you have fillets with skin you may want to remove the skin before broiling so that you can broil on both sides. When I grill fish with skin I don’t turn it over but it’s usually not a problem because your heat source is underneath and the top stays nice and moist and not burnt. Just some thoughts and suggestions.
With fish, my two rules are: (1) the fish has to be very fresh to avoid the “fishy” taste / smell and (2) BBQ/broil until just flaking (so as to prevent drying out the fish).
I fried some fish a day early since I figured I would be too tired to cook anything once I got back from Wet N Wild. So, I went to my local Publix and bought 1.5 pounds of tilapia, two lemons, Beer Batter, and I swiped a Miller Light from one of my Roomies’*. I was suprised at how fast it cooked. I’m so accustomed to cooking chicken which takes around three times as long to whiten than this did. The whole process was fast, easy, and supringly clean. The dishwashing wasn’t too hard either since tilapia doesn’t have a very strong smell.
It tasted good. Even better with lemon juice squeezed onto it. It was very similiar to chicken, only much more moist, and with a different texture. But even though I liked it, my skin is crawling so much I’d swear it was trying to find a new body to coat. I suppose this is normal since my immediate reaction to pretty much all seafood has always been “ACK!”, and here I am with a stomach full of about a pound of the stuff. My body is just looking for an excuse to become sick, I can feel it. But this is just a temporary feeling, my success in cooking and enjoying something I normally don’t enjoy is permanent.
I think I would now like to make something out of Lobster or crab, but I’ll leave that for another day and thread. Any information I didn’t use this time around is definately going to be remembered and put to use someday. Thanks for the help everyone .
I love fish, and second strongly the rule that it MUST be fresh or else it’ll be nasty. The “fishy” flavor to which you object is probably the flavor of fish that’s gone off by a day or two: it’s a flavor to which most folks object in some amount or another.
Salmon tastes nothing like chicken; wild Pacific salmon is an exquisitely unique flavor. While it’s not 100% safe to eat raw, you’re unlikely to catch any problems from doing so; you should try at least a nibble of it raw, to pick up its wonderful, almost wine-like flavor.
5 minutes a side is, in my opinion, quite a bit for grilled tuna. I think it’s at its best when it’s raw inside and just seared on the outside for extra flavor. Tuna when it gets dry is sad, and not much better than what you’ll get from a can.
Here’s my favorite fried fish approach. Very southern.
-Fillets of catfish or trout.
-Cornmeal mixed with salt and lots of black pepper.
-Flour
-Milk
-Oil
Rinse and pat dry the fish. Dredge the fish in the flour, and shake off any excess. Dredge the fish in the milk. Dredge the fish in the cornmeal mixture. Fry in the oil, just until the fish is light golden. Drain on paper towels. When you’ve fried all the fillets, start re-frying them, this time until they’re nice and medium-golden. Drain again, and eat. Serve with vinegary hot sauce.
This gets you some very crisp, very tender fillets with a great crunchy coating.
Pan-frying is the best way to cook salmon, in my opinion. Lightly salt and pepper the fish, and fry it in oil+butter, 3-4 minutes per side. Squeeze a little lemon juice on it and you’re done!
Glad you enjoyed the tilapia. I agree that Pacific salmon is very, very good, as are the farm-raised Atlantic varieties from Nova Scottia. Man, there’s nothing like getting a ten-pound salmon scaled, steaked and filleted. The chum makes for a nice fish stock, too. Besides pan-frying, fresh salmon is awfully good steamed with a bit of salty butter and chives and some cracked black pepper.
Me, I prefer my lobster in a bisque, but I can crack crabs right out the shell for days. Two of my favorite meals are a spicy blue crab boil and a South Carolina lowcountry meal called a Buford Stew, which is literally a stew of in-shell shrimp, link sausage, quartered ears of corn, whole small unpeeled potatoes and maybe a whole crab or three thrown in, simmered in water and beer. Best part of a Buford stew? I’ve never eaten one with silverware. Spread out in a big flat serving dish, dinner guests line up, grab up their portions and literally smack their fingers through the meal. Best informal meal in the world.
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