How to deliciously cook fish in a frying pan

Fried fish is delicious! But not every one is suitable for frying. And it's all about the meat. If it is not fatty, then the fish will turn out dry. That is why it is better to use moderately fatty and fatty varieties: carp, crucian carp, bream, eel, lamprey, carp, roach. Experts say that river fish is ideal for frying. But is it possible to refuse fried sea bass, mullet or catfish? This is a delicious and “celebration of the belly”!

Preparatory process

Purchased or caught fish must be cleaned of scales, fins, gills, tail, head and giblets removed. The exception is fish such as smelt. There is almost no need to clean it, and many people do not even cut off the head, fins and tail, but fry it whole. Fish slime is removed with salt: the entire carcass is wiped and then washed under running water.

Pay attention to the size of the fish: if it is small, it is fried whole. If it is large, then cut into portions (not too wide and not narrow - about 2.5 cm), without removing the bones, or cut until fillet is obtained. It is not recommended to remove the skin from the fish, otherwise the fish pieces will fall apart during frying (however, it is recommended to “undress” the catfish, which has a thick skin).

There is a way to get rid of the specific smell of river fish by soaking it in milk. Add half a teaspoon of salt and a little pepper to it. Fish soaked in this sauce will not fall apart when fried, and its meat will become more tender and soft. After 20 minutes, the fish is removed from the milk and blotted in a paper napkin to remove all excess moisture.

It is also recommended to soak river fish in order to treat it from fresh water, in which various organisms are found, including those harmful to human health. To get rid of this dubious “addition,” the fish carcass is either rubbed with salt or vodka. And marine varieties are already treated with a natural “disinfectant”.

How to choose the right river fish

first you need to smell the fish, lift the gills, there should not be a specific pungent odor, only a light aroma of mud is possible;
the smell of ammonia or the bright aroma of fish indicates that the product is not fresh, it is better to refrain from such a purchase;
the scales should be wet, dry and cracked, as well as a curved tail indicate that the product has been lying on the counter for a long time;
the eyes should be clear, the gills should be bright red or pink;
It is better to buy whole fish; the carcasses are usually cut up by unscrupulous sellers, so that it is difficult to check the freshness of the product.

Fish fried in a frying pan

There are at least three ways to fry fish: in a frying pan, deep-fried and grilled. If you are going to bread it, then flour will be suitable for this purpose. Place it on a flat plate, add salt (if you soak it in milk, you don’t need to add salt again), mix flour and salt and roll each piece in this breading. Some make it simpler and more efficient. Flour is poured into a plastic bag, fish pieces are placed there and then the bag is “shaken” so that all the fish fall off. This “breading” is useful only once, then the bag needs to be thrown away.

For frying, you should have a separate frying pan - with a thick bottom and only for fish. The pan must be clean and dry. Pour oil onto it and heat it to a temperature of 160-170 degrees. Now you can arrange the pieces of fish. You should not place them close to each other, but leave some distance between them. Then the pieces will not stick, and the crust formed on the fish will not come off when turning over. Fry it until golden brown on both sides. A neat crust “holds” the juice in the fish and prevents the loss of vitamins during frying. As a result, you get a wonderful, healthy and juicy dish.

Some people fry fish by simply salting it thoroughly and peppering it on all sides. But for these purposes it is better to use varieties with “thick” skin: eel, catfish, burbot, bream. If you do without oil at all, then fill a hot frying pan with rock salt and wait until its grains begin to “jump.” Then the salt is removed and the fish is fried until cooked - without oil.

Cod stewed with vegetables

Components:

cod fillets or stacks – 0.8 kg;
tomatoes – 0.3 kg;
carrots – 0.2 kg;
onions – 0.2 kg;
sour cream – 0.2 l;
salt, spices - to taste.

Cooking algorithm:

Prepare the cod by cutting it, washing it and drying it with paper towels.
Pepper and salt, season with aromatic herbs and leave for 15 minutes.
While the fish is marinating, prepare the vegetables: cut the tomatoes into slices, finely chop the onion, grate the carrots.
Place the cod in a frying pan, place a mixture of onions and carrots on it, cover with tomato slices and brush thickly with sour cream.
Simmer covered over low heat for 25 minutes.

Tomatoes give the fish a pleasant acidity; thanks to sour cream, it turns out tender and juicy. Mashed potatoes are ideal as a side dish. Don't forget to put on the plate the vegetables with which you cooked the cod in the pan.

Deep fried fish

Friture is a French word meaning "frying in oil." In other words, deep frying is boiling oil (fat) in which various foods are cooked: potatoes, rice, pieces of chicken, fish, shrimp, donuts.

It is better to fry dense fish in boiling oil: pike perch, hake, sea bass, pollock, whiting, mullet . In addition, their “meat” is sticky and will not fall apart during cooking.

If you don’t have an electric fryer, then you need to prepare heat-resistant, non-enamel and non-aluminum dishes (saucepan or saucepan). Pour in fat/oil - approximately half the volume of the vessel or in a ratio of 4 to 1 to the volume of the fish. Small fish are fried whole, large fish are filleted or cut into thin long pieces. Before loading into oil, the fish is breaded or dipped in batter. You can use 4 layers as breading:

Sifted wheat flour;
Egg lezon - a mixture of beaten egg and milk (water or cream);
Breading of white bread crumbs and wheat flour;
Ice cream again.

The breading process looks like this: the fish is rolled in the first layer (in flour), then lowered into the lezon, breaded in breadcrumbs and flour and released into the lezon again. This creates a dense breading layer.

Fish with lemon - general cooking principles

You can cook fish with lemons in a frying pan or in the oven. Baked fish dishes are especially popular because, despite their excellent taste, they often have low calorie content. This allows them to be used in dietary and healthy nutrition.

Any fish requires preliminary mechanical processing: cleaning, gutting, washing. The carcasses are prepared whole or cut into pieces. Fillet is used in many dishes.

The lemon is washed and dried. Use juice, zest or chopped citrus slices. It all depends on the recipe. It is advisable to remove the seeds, as they can give the dish an unpleasant aftertaste and even bitterness.

Fish in batter

Batter differs from breading and is a dough-like mass. The basic composition includes flour, eggs, water and salt. Mix two eggs and 0.5 teaspoon and beat a little with a fork, add sifted flour (0.5 cup) to the mixture, mix well to obtain a homogeneous mass. Pour 0.5 cups of cold water into the mixture last and stir some more. A liquid, creamy dough should form. This is the batter.

It is very tasty to fry fish in beer batter. To do this, take 2 chicken eggs, separate the whites and “forget” about them for a while. And sift flour (1 full glass) into the yolks, add a pinch of fish seasoning and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Shake this whole mass and gradually pour in 1 glass of cold light beer. Whip the whites separately until foamy and add to the beer mixture. Stir until smooth, adding 0.5 teaspoon of salt.

Pieces or fillets of fish are rolled in flour or breaded, and then dipped in batter and quickly deep-fried. The pieces should “float freely” in the oil, so there shouldn’t be too many of them. To find out if the fish is ready, you just need to keep an eye on it: if it is covered with a golden brown crust, you can remove it from the container. The remaining oil must be removed: spread the pieces on a paper napkin so that the excess is absorbed.

You can “finish” the fish in the oven. Then they do this: spend up to 5 minutes on deep frying, 5-7 minutes on the oven.

Cod in pita bread

You can cook delicious fish in different ways. This time we invite you to try the original version, which your loved ones will definitely appreciate. How to cook delicious fish in the oven:

Peel a large onion and cut it into thin rings.
Cut the tomato into rings.
Divide the fillet, salt and pepper to taste.
Cut the pita bread and place it in front of you on the work surface of the table.
Mix sour cream and mayonnaise in a bowl.
Place the onion in the center of the pita bread, then the fish, and then brush it with sauce. Place tomato slices on top and wrap the filling in an envelope. Do the same with the rest of the ingredients.
Place the finished envelopes in a baking container and brush with the remaining sauce.

Preheat the oven and bake this unusual snack for half an hour.

Grilled fish

Grilling fish is also a type of frying. Non-bony varieties with dense meat are suitable: tuna, mackerel, sea bream, pink salmon, salmon. To give the fish a special taste, it is marinated and left for 30 minutes. Without marinade, it is recommended to rub the carcass with vegetable oil, and then it will not stick to the grill grate.

Fish gets a very piquant taste if you first rub it with sugar and put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Only then it is salted or marinated: for example, in different types of oil and soy sauce, to which chopped garlic and ground ginger are added, or in lemon juice with garlic. You should not get too carried away with spices and seasonings, otherwise their smell will “outweigh” the smell and taste of fish.

Stewed hake with tomatoes

Another idea for a delicious lunch. For this dish, hake fish is inexpensive and accessible to everyone. You can learn how to deliciously prepare an unusual “hodgepodge” from the following recipe:

Peel 15 or 20 slices of garlic and then lightly fry them in vegetable oil.
Open two cans of tomatoes in their own juice (800 grams each) and place the contents in a frying pan.
Bring the vegetables to a boil and simmer over low heat for another half hour.
While the tomatoes are stewing, start processing the fish. It should be cleaned, cut into pieces of the size you need, salt and pepper them.
Place the prepared hake in the pan in one layer and continue to simmer all together for another 30 minutes.

When the specified time has passed, taste the fish. If it is ready, then serve the dish, sprinkled with fresh herbs and a side dish of potatoes or rice. We hope you enjoy the hake fish stew. You can learn how to deliciously prepare other culinary delights if you continue reading our article.

Oil for frying

Only refined oil is suitable for deep-frying fish. But which one exactly is your choice. You can use canola, safflower, canola, peanut, soy, olive, and only fresh. It should be noted that olive oil has a high smoke point. However, you will use several times less peanut oil than usual, and it burns less than other types when deep-frying. The only (but significant “minus”) of peanut butter is that it is an allergen.

Fish is also fried in a “mixture” of sunflower and butter. You can use pork fat instead of butter. Some chefs recommend using butter as a “lining” for fish during the frying process, and when it is already browned on one side and turned over on the other. Butter, as a dairy product, removes specific odors. Others advise frying with vegetable oil, but melt the butter and pour it over the finished fish before serving. This culinary “trick” will make the dish more tender and refined.

Before pouring oil into the frying pan, it must be well heated. An acceptable “layer” of oil is 1 cm. Ideally, the fish should be immersed halfway in the oil, but not boiling, but well heated. How can I check this? It’s very simple: if whitish smoke is released, you can start frying. By the way, heavily smoky oil needs to be replaced with “fresh” oil. It is not recommended to fry in the same oil many times: the breading particles will char and can ruin the gorgeous appearance of the dish. Don't skimp on oil!

Note to the hostess

It is recommended to fry fried fish just before serving. Having laid it out on a platter, pour over the juice released during frying or butter, melted and warm. If the cooking recipe calls for a sauce (tomato, mayonnaise, sour cream), then it needs to be poured into a gravy boat and placed on the table next to the fish - everyone will take as much as they see fit.

The fried fish is served with a side dish: fried potatoes or vegetables (tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, cauliflower, green peas), vegetable salads. Pasta or cereal (except rice) products are bad manners. But salted, pickled cucumbers or mushrooms, a lot of herbs, lemons are what you need!

Fish with lemon - useful tips and tricks

• To prevent the fish from slipping out of your hands when cleaning and gutting, dip your fingers in coarse salt. You can hold the carcass by a clothespin attached to the tail.

• Fish loves marinating and it is not necessary to keep the pieces in spices and lemon for just half an hour. You can season the product the day before, put it in a container and keep it in the refrigerator overnight.

• The citrus aroma is imparted to the fish not by the juice, but by the zest. You can prepare it in advance: dry it or freeze it.

• In order not to waste precious time on washing the baking sheet, you can cover it with a piece of foil. This does not affect the taste of the dish or cooking time. Cooking