Iowa DNR
Bellevue Fisheries Station
Recipes for
Cooking Fish
You
must have good quality fish flesh in order to have excellent tasting fish for
the table. Many fisherman neglect taking
proper care of their fish while they are out on the water and sometimes don’t
get them skinned or cleaned quickly when they return home. Wire baskets, rope and metal stringers are
not a good way to hold your fish for a long period of time, especially when the
water temperature is warm. Many fish
will die very quickly when placed on a stringer. When a fish dies the flesh will start to
break down and lose its taste quality very quickly unless it is placed on
ice. I like to place all of my fish in a
cooler that is partially filled with water and place one or two frozen milk
jugs of ice into the cooler with the fish. This will allow the fish flesh to properly chill and the fish will be
easier to skin and fillet when you arrive home.
Before
you begin to skin a fish, lift up one of the gill covers and look at the color
of the fishes gills. If the gill is red
or a dark pink color that fishes flesh will be good for the table. If the gill is light pink or white in color,
that fish is not fit to eat. Fish that
are kept on stringers or baskets in the heat of the summer will many times have
white gills when they arrive home to be cleaned. Either keep your fish alive or bring along
some ice if you want to have some good fish to eat. After filleting the fish put the fillets in a
bowl of water and place in the refrigerator overnight. If you have a large amount of fish fillets or
don’t have room in your refrigerator I put them in a cooler with water and a
couple of frozen milk jugs of ice or plenty of ice cubes. The next day trim off any portions of yellow
or white fat and any red meat that is on the fish fillet. After soaking fillets in cold water overnight
the fillets will firm up and make trimming excess fat and red meat easier.
Microwave Fish
Fillets
Fish
can be cooked very quickly and without any cooking oils or breading if prepared
in a microwave. Walleye, bluegill,
crappie, yellow perch or northern pike fillets are best to use for this cooking
method. Lay the fillets on several layers
of paper towels and blot them dry. Spray
a flat glass dish with cooking spray and place fillets in the dish, only one
layer thick and no fillets covering another. Sprinkle Cajun seasoning, lemon pepper, dried onions and Mrs. Dash
seasoning over all of the fillets with the amount suitable to your taste.Place the dish in the microwave and cook for one minute at medium of high heat. Take the dish out and rotate the fillets, outside fillets to the middle and the middle fillets to the outside. Tilt the dish over the sink and spoon out any excess liquid that is in the dish. Cook in the microwave for another minute, rotate fillets and drain. Repeat one minute microwave cycle, rotating fillets and draining procedure until fillets turn white and start to break apart easily with a fork. It normally takes 2-4 minutes total cooking time (depending on your microwave and the amount of fish being cooked) to fully cook the fish. When the fillets break apart easily with a fork the fish is done. Do not overcook the fish! The fish will turn rubbery and tough if it is overcooked.
My favorite twist to this method is when the fish are almost ready to break apart, crumble 4 or 5 Ritz crackers over all of the fillets and sprinkle a light coating of grated orange and white cheese over the entire dish. Then cook for 30-40 seconds to melt the cheese and finish cooking the fish. The advantages of cooking fish in the microwave is: there is no fishy smell in the kitchen, the fish will be cooked in less than 5 minutes and its healthy since no breading or cooking oil is used. This method is one of my families’ favorite ways to eat fish!
Most any type of fish will work nicely with this method. You should have consistent size pieces of fish for this method. Don’t cook small bluegill fillets in the same batch with thicker pieces of catfish. Cook all of the small bluegill fillets in the same batch and the thicker fish pieces in another batch. You will want all of the fish to cook at the same time so it is easy to dump the entire batch at one time.
Gently
blot the fillets on a paper towel so they are only slightly moist. Coat them with one of the many brands of fish
batters that are on the market today as to what your taste is. Some people prefer their food really spicy
and others want it mild. One of the most
important parts of deep frying fish is to have a thermometer to keep the
cooking oil between 325-350 degrees while the fish is cooking. If the temperature is 300 degrees or less the
fish will absorb lots of oil and be almost inedible to eat. If however, the temperature gets 375-400
degrees the oil will start to burn and turn brown. If the oil gets burnt the fish will be dark
brown or almost black and not fit to eat.
Many times you will either have to turn the heat up or down to maintain
the perfect temperature. Don’t place too
much fish in the cooker at one time. A
good rule is only about one layer of fish in the bottom of the deep fryer at a
time. I like to put one gallon of oil in
the pan and usually no more than 1 pound of fish fillets at a time in the
cooker.
The
fish will sink to the bottom when first placed into the hot oil. Usually after 3 or 4 minutes the fish will
begin floating to the surface of the 325-250 degree oil. Allow the fish fillets to float for about a
minute after all the fillets have come to the surface. The fillets should be a nice golden brown
color when allowed to float in the hot oil.
After
the fish has come out of the hot oil and placed on paper towels to cool, you
should lightly sprinkle Cajun seasoning over all of the fish pieces. If the fish is cooked at the proper
temperature of 325-350 degrees very little cooking oil will be absorbed into
the fish. Deep frying is not such a bad
method to prepare fish if the cooking temperature is closely monitored at all
times.
Hush Puppy
Recipe
1
cup cornmeal1 cup flour
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk (short cup)
1 cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped peppers
Mix
and drop small teaspoonfuls into 315-325 degree oil.
