OK! You’ve got your freshly caught fish in the ice chest all cleaned and ready for cooking. But how to cook it? Cooking fresh fish can be done any one of a hundred or even a thousand ways. In fact I have never met a fisherman who didn’t have his own special recipe for cooking his mess of trout, salmon or whatever fish he caught. Get into any kind of a conversation with fisherman and when the talk comes to cooking their fish you will see what I mean. But just in case you have a wee bit of confusion about how to cook your fresh fish, here are some tips to get the best out of your fish.
1.Frying
Frying a fish begins with coating the fish with some sort of batter. This can be a simple bread crumb mixture, store bought batter mix or a person’s own special mixture. Season your batter with whatever herbs and spices you like and don’t forget the salt and pepper. One of the best fish fry’s I’ve ever had was with a simple beer batter mixture and deep-frying the fish fillets. It doesn’t get any better than that, as they say.
Another way to fry your catch is to batter your fish and fry it in butter in a pan. Have you ever seen on TV where the cook takes the pan with the fish in it and flips the fish in the air? Oh…what a delicious treat. Ahh…the smell of butter emanating from the frying pan mixed with the smell of frying fish. The fisherman reaches out flips his fish in the air. The experience is worth its weight in gold. But to get to eat some of the fish is a better experience
2.Grilling
Grilling your fresh fish is not the same as grilling a steak or hamburger. Oh…No don’t make that mistake. Fish will secret most of their own juices when cooked. If not done correctly you could loose most of those delicious juices as they drip into the coals.
If you will coat the fish with some oil before you place it on the grill you won’t loose so much of the juices. The oil coating helps to seal in part of the moisture of your fish. Make sure you keep and your eyes on the fillets and turn them as soon as a cut reveals that the fresh fish is halfway cooked. Use as big a utensil as possible to flip the fish. The goal is to flip the fish as carefully as you can without tearing or damaging the skin or meat. Be sure to take the fish off the grill as soon as it is cooked, and not to overcook it.
Another way of grilling your fish is to season your catch to your liking and grill it at the highest setting possible. This will sear the outside of the fish keeping the natural juices inside. Keep in mind that if you want to try cooking your fish this way it will be cooking much quicker. But if done correctly you will be serving an extremely delicious meal with very little bother in cooking it.
Still another grilling option is to bast the fish with oil and wrap it in aluminum foil. You can place your herbs and spices inside the foil with the fish. This method keeps all the natural juices of the fish inside the foil pouch blinding all the flavors together acting as a natural marinate during the grilling process.
3.Baking
If you don’t have a lot of time to spend with the cooking of your fish than you can bake it. This is by far the easiest way to cook your catch and can deliver a mouth-watering meal in no time at all. First prepare the marinade and pre-heat the oven.
Once the oven is at the desired temperature stick the fish in for a predetermined amount of time. You will want to check on the progress of your fish from time to time, ensuring that you don’t overcook it. Making sure you don’t overcook your fish is the cardinal rule of cooking fish. So check in on it a few times during cooking.
It doesn’t matter what kind of fish you have caught. There is a good recipe and a way to cook it to produce one of the best tasting meals anywhere. Take some time to look for recipes that you think you will like to try or ask any fisherman about how they like to cook their catch. You may come upon someone’s old family recipe that you will prize for the rest of you cooking days. Happy eating.
