Bringing home the fish

Buying and caring for Fish to eat:

  1. Always take your fresh fish out of the bag or wrapper after you get it home and place it on a plate and cover it.  Place it in the coldest part of your fridge away from the vegetable’s drawer.
  2. When buying whole fish or fillets, try to get them in even sizes so the cooking times are the same and it makes life easier.
  3. When preparing your fish, try to avoid washing it as the porous fish absorbs water, removing oils and flavour.  If you need to clean it, wipe the fish with a clean, wet chux cloth or paper towel.
  4. Always cook your fish and crustaceans from room temperature.
  5. Marinades add flavour and help to keep fish moist
  6. Cook fish fillets for about 3 – 4 minutes on the skin side, depending on the thickness, then flip and cook for 1 minute on the flesh side – except tuna)
  7. Cook tuna for 1 ½ minutes on the skin side and 30 seconds on the other, otherwise you may as well be eating it from a can!!  The fish is cooked when it turns opaque, and only turn it once
  8. BBQ fish – salt the skin first
  9. When is it cooked? Insert a skewer into the thickest part, if it comes out without too much resistance the fish is ready
  10. If you have fishy smelling hands rinse in a water and vinegar solution

Salmon fillet simple marinades:

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, juice and zest of a lime and a bit of seasoning.  Place salmon in the marinade and lave for up to 20 minutes.  Never leave seafood in a citrus based marinade for longer than 20 minutes as it will start to cook the fish.

Mussels on the BBQ are a great snack.

  1. Scrub and debeard the mussels (look at the crack where the two shells meet, and you’ll see bits of what looks like threads of brown seaweed, pinch and pull-on beard until it comes out)
  2. Rinse and drain mussels then tip onto a very hot BBQ plate.
  3. Tip over a dash of wine or water,
  4. Gather together and cover with a large pot lid or even a metal cake tin to help them quickly steam open.
  5. Leave the lid on without touching for at least 2 minutes and then extract mussels as they open
  6. Serve in a bowl with garlic butter sauce made from about 75g  butter, 1 finely chopped garlic clove and some snipped chives melted in a pot on the BBQ