Cooking Fish like a Professional Chef
If you like this post, please subscribe to our RSS feed to read our new posts every day.
Depending on the flavor and texture you are looking for, there are many different ways to cook fish. You might be cooking steaks, fillets, or whole fish and there are many methods to try. Stuffing is a good way of adding flavor and texture. Using round fish is best because they have a bigger body cavity. Be careful not to overstuff the fish if you are using a breadcrumb stuffing, because breadcrumbs expand when cooking. A parsley and walnut pesto is very good with sea bass. If you are using fillets, you can sandwich them with stuffing or roll them up, then oven-bake them.
Methods of Fish Cooking
Steaming is a good, easy way to cook fillets, whole fish, and steaks. You need to put the fish in the steamer over boiling water and have a tight-fitting lid on it. Poaching is another healthy way of cooking it, in which you add seasoning, cream or another thickener and herbs. This gives you a sauce to serve with the fish.
Roasting or oven baking is great for fillets or whole fish. You need to use an ovenproof dish and can add some butter or oil, herbs, seasoning and white wine. To get very moist and tender flesh, you can cook fish “en papillote”, which means you place the fish in sealed foil or paper, so it cooks in its own steam. You can add white whine, lemon or limejuice and fresh herbs to the parcel before cooking. You can also braise fish in the oven, by placing it on top of sauted vegetables in an ovenproof dish, adding bouillon and white wine, covering the dish with a lid and cooking for approximately 20 minutes.
If you are using fillets or small, whole fish, grilling is another cooking method. If your fish are whole, make a few slashes through the skin on each side of the fish and brush it with olive oil or melted mutter. Turn the fish halfway through cooking and baste it if you want. You can also wrap the fish in foil with herbs, lemon juice, and olive oil before placing it on the grill.
You do not always need to heat fish in order to cook it. Ceviche is when you soak white fish, usually snapper, in chili, herbs, and lime juice. You can also use flounder, sole, or scallops. The acidic citrus juice cooks the fish.
Wood Fish Board for Cooking
This is another great method for cooking fish. You can use just about any kind of wood to cook fish on, as long as it is untreated and pest-free. The wood must be completely waterlogged before cooking, to ensure the wood generates enough steam and smoke to cook the fish, so it needs to be soaked for at least an hour beforehand.
Cedar is the most common wood but you can also use oak, maple, alder, apple, or cherry. You can buy a cooking quality wood fish board from specialty food stores or online. A wood fish board lasts for one use.
Brushing your fish with oil stops it from sticking to the board. When you cook on a wood fish board, you do not flip the fish because it cooks indirectly. Once your fish is prepared, oiled on one side and seasoned, you need to place the fish board and fish directly on the grill. You can baste the fish during cooking but do not use anything flammable. The board should be over a low fire so as not to ignite.
Cooking fish on a wood fish board is an excellent way of cooking. The wood smolders, which creates the smoke to flavor your fish. What’s more, there is no washing up to be done afterwards!
