Fish Cooking Tips

Most of us anglers love to eat fish, whether it is fish we have caught or fish purchased at a market. Below you will find some great cooking tips that will help you enjoy your catch.

MILK to remove the Fishy odours: If you prefer your fish to be mild and as non-fishy as possible, soak it in milk for at least 1/2 hour prior to cooking. The milk removes most of the fishy taste and helps thawed fish if frozen taste fresher. Consider placing frozen fish in a sealed container with milk (alone or preferably with seasonings) to soak and thaw in the refrigerator overnight. The fish should be rinsed before soaking in the milk, as it is best to take the fish straight out of the milk and prepare it for cooking without re-rinsing. However, fish rinsed after soaking in milk will still be slightly milder and fresher tasting than fish that has not been soaked in milk.

Drizzle with Lemon: Most of us like to squeeze a little lemon juice on our fish after it is cooked or while it is cooking. Another consideration would be to try using Lemon Pepper seasoning instead. This versatile seasoning provides a lot of zest and can be used on pan-fried or sautéed fish, or mixed into the batter of deep fried fish. Fish fillets lightly pan fried in butter or margarine with nothing but a sprinkle of Lemon Pepper provides a particularly light, zesty and delicious meal.

Use Vegetables: There are many ways to use delicious vegetables to create a wonderful fish dish. Consider sautéing onions, chillies, peppers or other favorites in a pan, then adding fish fillets and cooking them in the resulting spicy oils, spooning the vegetables on top of the fish during cooking to let the flavor soak into the flesh. Vegetables can also be chopped and cooked with fish fillets or inside a whole cleaned fish. For example, I like to cook freshly caught trout on coals wrapped in foil, with chopped onions, peppers, parsley, butter, olive oil and seasonings inside the fish cavity. Cooked vegetables can also be added as a topping or garnish with fish cooked almost any style. It is worth being creative when cooking with fish.

Marinate your fish: In recent times more and more people are marinating their fish in various sauces, from honey soy to barbecue sauce. Sauce manufacturers have developed a large variety of sauces that taste great on fish, including sweet and sour which is one of my favourites. Many cooks are even preparing fish and serving it covered with Mexican salsa. Pick out a sauce that sounds good and try it. Regardless of the sauce chosen, it is worth soaking the fish in a sauce will absorb the flavor, often faster and more thoroughly than meat. Sauce or salsa applied to fish after it is cooked will not soak through as fast, instead acting as a flavorful topping. Marinated fish can be barbecued, sautéed, steamed or even battered and deep-fried. Flaky fish is not easy to barbecue, but large fish steaks often work well and grilling cages are available for barbecuing whole fish. Remember that barbecued fish does not have to mean barbecue sauce. Try something new. My favourite on the barbecue is to marinate it with salt, black pepper and oregano mixed in with olive oil and lemon. I love basting it while it cooks and tastes FANTASTIC!

Bake with Bacon or Prosciutto: Bacon and prosciutto is a great complements to fish when oven baked. Try laying some fish fillets in a greased baking dish, covering them with strips of bacon or prosciutto, pouring a little barbecue sauce over the top and baking it in the oven until the bacon or prosciutto is cooked. The bacon or prosciutto will not be crisp like fried bacon, but it should be cooked and taste absolutely fantastic!

Be Inventive: Why not try something new with your catch? Use some of your fresh fish to experiment in the kitchen. Try new recipes, new seasonings, new sauces or toppings, and new methods to cook your fish. You may surprise yourself. If an experiment doesn't turn out that good, you haven't lost a lot of money. I stumbled across cooking fish fillets on a non-stick frying pan using just a little butter on the pan and marinading my fillets with just salt, black pepper, sweet chilli flakes and squeezing some lemon in the end once the cooking is completed however fish still in the pan. My kids love it and so do I!

Why not leave your cooking tips below?

If you have a delicious fish recipe you would like to share, please share it below. Once I verify the text, I’ll upload it immediately!  Happy Fishing!