On 03/30/2010 11:24 AM, Steve M wrote:
On 3/28/2010 9:19 PM, Todd wrote:
Hi All,

A customer gave me about five pounds of fresh, flash
frozen ocean caught Salmon from his fishing trip
to Alaska.

I only have a frying pan available (no smokers,
ovens, bar-b-ques, etc.).

I have butter, olive oil, thyme, rosemary, basel,
oregano, parsley, salt and pepper and a few other
spices.

What next?

Many thanks,
-T

Family recipe for frying fresh fish (of almost any kind)

Filet (if it's too small to filet, throw it back) being sure to get all
the skin and/or any pieces of skin off the meat.

Cooking fish with the skin on makes for strong/odd tasting fish. It
ranks right up there with cooking Dungeness crab whole, rather than
cleaning them first. Why would you do that?

Anyway.

If your fillets are thicker than 1/2 inch, slice down to 1/2 inch or
less. Thicker pieces get more 'interesting' to cook without the result
being overdone outsides and underdone centers. Fish is not beef and does
not fair well at the table when rare in the center. At least at our house.

Cut length/width to suite, I usually shoot for around 3x4 to 3x5 as that
is a nice 'finger food' size. :-)

Just prior to cooking soak fish pieces for 10/15 minutes in large GLASS
bowl of mild lemon water (quart of water, juice of half a lemon). Metal
bowels will change the flavor. Plastic is probably alright, don't know,
I've always used glass.

While fish is soaking, crush crackers (to powder fineness, use a rolling
pin) for coating. I like a 50/50 mix of saltines and Ritz, myself. The
crackers will have enough salt, but I usually add some pepper to the
resulting 'flour'. (Lemon Pepper is good if you have it) I've been known
to use just plain flour too. It is fine, just not the way I like to do
it. (no pigheadedness here)

Mix (with whisk) 1 to N eggs in bowl for coating fish prior to rolling
in coating mixture. You want a totally homogenized egg mix here.

Start preheating skillet with a decent oil, about 1/8 to 1/4 inch
covering bottom of pan. I tend towards peanut oil as it stands high heat
well and I also like the flavor, but that's me. You want the skillet
fairly hot, not stir-fry hot, but hot enough to seal and cook the fish
quickly, I suppose around 375 degrees F.

Drain and dry the fish. The fish has to be dry for the egg to stick to it.

Dip/role fish pieces in egg mix, roll/cover in crackers, set on plate
until you have a skillet full. Quickly load the heated skillet with the
prepared fish. You want all pieces to be as close to the same cooking
time frame as possible.


Cooking time will vary, but if you keep the pieces 1/2 inch or less,
when the cracker/egg coating is golden brown (2-3 minutes a side), the
fish should be done on that side. If the fish is too greasy, you are not
cooking hot enough.

If it's blackened, well, you can figure that one out. :-)

Put cooked fish on paper towel lined plate, serve with lemon slices on
the side, tartar sauce, salad/whatever and a cold beer.

Life is good.

\s


Wow! Thank you! I will definitely skin them. Would you
use any garlic? Any salt (brine) in the lemon soak?

I brine my chicken and turkey in a Stainlness steel pot.
Comes out great, but these is no acid in it. Do you
think I would get away with a stailness pot? (I do use
lemon juice to clean up stains from my Stainless pots
and pans, so I would not want any of that in my fish.
So, I am thinking probably not.)

-T