Frying fish - delish and healthy ideas/recipes

[UKbob]

Not very experienced when it comes to choosing fish from the many varieties on offer, and then cooking it. I usually buy frozen scampi and calamari which hardly counts!

Anyone care to advise on the tastiest fried, grilled or baked fishes, along with whatever ingredients are used to flavour it.

Other than tinned salmon/sardines/tuna, and frozen/battered supermarket offerings, the only FRESH fish Ive ever cooked is salmon, in lemon, pepper, with salt and butter. Not into the steamed whitefish type meals! But am trying to eat more healthily, does anyone have any good ideas/recipies for tasty fish dishes?

Im a fan of crispy fried food, and strong lemon/pepper/wine sauces if that helps in choosing a new type of fish and method of cooking, there must be thousands of different fish recipies out there, most of which Im not keen on trying, as Im not really a seafood lover.

Edited by UKbob on Sunday 20th January 17:10

[condor]

Best suggestion
Go out in a boat and catch your own fish - the fresher it is, the simpler you need to cook it.

[UKbob]

condor said:

Best suggestion
Go out in a boat and catch your own fish - the fresher it is, the simpler you need to cook it.

But.. but... Im not a hunter gatherer

[Wadeski]

umm you could spend a day sitting in the rain, or just go to your local fishmonger and ask for two small white fish fillets, marinate for 2 hrs in white wine, pepper, lemon and dill.

then dust gently with cornflour and slide into a frying pan of bubbling butter (with a bit of veg oil added to raise the frying point) and shallow fry till golden.

i like mine with a salad of leaves, halved cherry tomatoes and, some soba noodles for the carbs.

[Tina K]

Try marinating a salmon fillet (or any oily fish) in a mixture of sesame oil, soy sauce, chopped chillies, crushed garlic and finely chopped ginger. Fry flesh side down in a non stick pan for a minute or two then turn it over and transfer to a hot oven for 5 minutes or so.

I like this served on a salad of finely shredded fennel dressed with lemon zest, lemon juice and a splash of olive oil. Chopped coriander leaves sprinkled over. Magic.

[Don]

I like to fish as simply as possible - to just taste the fish.

Bake salmon fillets in the over 12 minutes or so depending. Service with tortellini tossed in pesto and steamed mange-tout. My sister's "recipe".

For an unusual and completely fab experience - fresh mackerel (preferably home caught) - gutted, cleaned and barbequed whole. LOTS of oil on the griddle to stop it sticking. Done in minutes. I like it with salad and rice.

If you want really strong flavours: Trout fillets. Soy sauce, ginger, garlic, thai red chillies. Marinate. Dry the fish off and lightly flour the skin side. Pan fry flesh side down very hot, turn, and do skin side until crisp. Pour remaining marinate into pan to get it hot and sterilise it. Fish goes on top of rice, marinate (which becomes sauce) goes on top of fish. Very, very hot.

[UKbob]

Don said:

If you want really strong flavours: Trout fillets. Soy sauce, ginger, garlic, thai red chillies. Marinate. Dry the fish off and lightly flour the skin side. Pan fry flesh side down very hot, turn, and do skin side until crisp. Pour remaining marinate into pan to get it hot and sterilise it. Fish goes on top of rice, marinate (which becomes sauce) goes on top of fish. Very, very hot.

Now that sounds like a tasty dish!

[dougc]

Slice up a potato, de-seed and roughly chop a couple of big tomatoes and a red pepper. Open a tin of anchovies. Season and chuck them all in a roasting tin with some stock and a bit of white wine. Stick it in the oven at about 200. After 20 minutes put a whole sea bass on top of the veg and bake for a further 25 minutes or until the fish is done. If you get the levels of stock/wine right, the veg should be nice and moist with a little bit of liquid left over which will have all the fish, anchovy and tomato juices in it.

Not strictly frying as per the OP but very good anyway.

Edited by dougc on Monday 21st January 12:43

[dern]

A recipe I tried on saturday was very simple and extremely tasty. Get a fillet of cod (or some other white fish), skin and bone it, wrap it in prosciutto so that the ends of the fish are poking out, stick a bay leaf on one side, fry in olice oil with the sage side down for 3 minutes, turn over and do the other side for 2 minutes (you're aiming to get the prosciutto slightly crispy).

Another dead easy one we used to do to get a whole trout, wash it, pat the skin down with flour and then fry it until browned on both sides.

Edited by dern on Monday 21st January 13:08

[rupert the dog]

You can't go wrong with sea bass, either baked whole, stuffed with whatever herbs you like (parsley, dill, thyme, etc) and some lemon slices, some butter, season and wrap in foil, or fillets simply dusted with seasoned flour, and pan fried in butter. Delicious!

[mechsympathy]

Marinade salmon steaks in the juice of a lime and an equal amount of soy sauce for 30 mins. Fry it skin side down in a hot pan for a few minutes then turn it over and pour the marinade in, sliding the fillets about until the thickened marinade has coated them. Serve with salad/french beans and new potatoes (If you want the salmon cooked completely through then put a lid on while you fry them skin side down.)

Tuna steaks: Get a pan really hot, season the steaks on both sides and put them in for a minute on each side, squeezing over the juice of a lime towards the end of cooking the second side.

Cod with pesto: Put a couple of cod fillets in oiled foil with a splash of white wine, bake at 180 degrees for 10-15 mins until nearly done. Then open the packets and smear on some pesto before returning it to the oven for a few minutes.

[Wadeski]

oh sod it here's another good one:

get a cleaned whole snapper (or trout if you can get that fresher). Score it all over with a knife.
You can either bake or steam the fish for this recipe, its great both ways.

flavourings:
Shred 12 spring onions, 6 lime leaves (buy from a thai supermarket), 2 thai chillies and a BIG nub of ginger into matchstick shreds.

toss the shredded mixture in a mix of 1 tbsp sesame, 2 tbps soy, 2 tbps rice wine (or dry vermouth, even a dry white wine) and 1 tsp thai fish sauce.

cover the fish with the shredded flavourings, making sure you stuff the cavity.

Bake or steam the fish (about 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the fish) until white and flaky.

Remove from the oven and place on a heat-prove dish. pile all the shred on top of the fish.

In a wok, heat 5 tbps groundnut oil until shimmering hot. if you have any nice flavoured oil (e.g. homemade garlic / chilli oil) you can use that. When hot, carefully pour the hot oil over the fish and shred. It should sizzle like crazy, and crisp everything up.

Serve with rice, salad, and a chilled Gewurztraminer etc etc

[Bob the Planner]

Mackerel Kebab

Clean a couple of mackerel and cut up into 1 inch chunks. chop a bulb of fennel into 1/2 inch cubes. Top & tail an onion, cut into half and then quarter each half. Put a clove or two of galic into bowl and add a teaspoon of salt, crush with the back of a spoon into a paste, add the juice of a lemon, a good dash of white wine and a teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves and a teaspoon of fennel leaves. Add the fish, fennel, onions, 8 cherry tomatoes, a sliced corgette and some (4-8) mushrooms and marinade for about an hour.

Heat the grill/BBQ. Thread the fish and vegetables into 8 long skewers, brush with a little olive oil and cook for 8-10 minutes turning regularly.

Serve with some pasta and salad.

Can also be done with salmon or tuna but fresh mackerel straight off the boat :Mmmmmm:

[Semi hemi]

Salmon fillet cut into centimetre strips in non metallic bowl, season with sea salt
add grated ginger, chopped onion, finely sliced hot red chilli(es)and loads of fresh lime juice, and a big handfull of chopped fresh corriander. mix and leave in cool place for at least half an hour.
lime juice "cooks" the salmon...you can use any oily fish

Edited due to amnesia

Edited by Semi hemi on Monday 28th January 15:46

[UKbob]

Thanks for all the suggestions/recipies

[juice]

mechsympathy said:

Marinade salmon steaks in the juice of a lime and an equal amount of soy sauce for 30 mins. Fry it skin side down in a hot pan for a few minutes then turn it over and pour the marinade in, sliding the fillets about until the thickened marinade has coated them. Serve with salad/french beans and new potatoes (If you want the salmon cooked completely through then put a lid on while you fry them skin side down.)

Tried this last night and was gorgeous - Cheers! Served it on some leeks/Green and red peppers in a lovely thick creme Fraiche/garlic sauce with New Potatoes. Well impressed.

[neilsfishing]

If you like a lot of flavor make a batter mix gram flour ground rice (table spoon) it gives texture to the batter ground cumin coriander finely chopped ginger fresh chili leave the seeds if you like it hot salt ground pepper
Hot frying pan olive oil covering the bottom of the pan cut the fish into 25 – 40mm ish lumps chunks I use trout that my dad catches but it works with most fish dip the fish and fry I love it so dose the wife and she wont touch the trout normally
I always fry a sample of the batter first to check flavor
oh yes its low fat to

[Wadeski]

do you mean deep fry (pot / wok full of very hot oil) or shallow fry(frying pan with lots of butter / oil) neil?

[mechsympathy]

juice said:

Tried this last night and was gorgeous - Cheers! Served it on some leeks/Green and red peppers in a lovely thick creme Fraiche/garlic sauce with New Potatoes. Well impressed.

I was surprised when I first came across it, but as you say it's

[neilsfishing]

I shallow fry