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!

 

Deep Frying 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 cornmeal
1 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.