How to Cook Fish
BY BILL ST JOHN
I was a chicken when it came to fish.
I could cook a terrific Thai green curry, or a mean vindaloo, or a yellow cloud of hollandaise.
But when I used to cook seafood, I froze. The mussels vulcanized; the salmon was overdone. Cooked cod resembled a glacier: it calved sections of itself.
I knew that seafood and lake fish are, in fact, the simplest things to cook. But I always messed them up — just like dozens of other home cooks with whom, over the years, I’ve shared stories in the mysterious ways of fin and gill. Then, a few years ago, I learned the great lesson of cooking fish: Don’t.
Don’t cook it, at least much. It’s best to cook fish hardly at all. Treat it, all of it, simply and at a minimum.
That admonition is about the heat, that’s all. About the seasonings or flavorings, you may be as lavish or as parsimonious as you wish. But back off on the fire.
Here are some quick fixes for fish of various sorts.
Shrimp
Place shell-on shrimp of any size, at room temperature, in a flat, heatproof dish and pour over them a court bouillon that has been brought to the boil and flavored generously with anything aromatic (garlic, shallots, a mix of sweet and hot peppers, various herbs or spices).
Just pour the liquid over them. That will be the hottest that the shrimp will ever be. Leave the shrimp until the liquid cools to your liking and then peel.
Lobster
Steam or boil a one-and-a-half-pound lobster no more than seven minutes, despite that cookbooks say to cook lobsters that size for 10-12 minutes. Then immediately plunge the lobster into an ice water bath and cool it down in there.
When you want to serve the lobster, cut it up and reheat it for three or four minutes, over high heat, in a sauté pan, with the meat still in the shell, flavored with splashes of olive oil and soy sauce, and any aromatics (as above, for the shrimp) that you choose. This preparation makes for a more flavorful lobster than a traditional water-only steam or boil.
Scallops
Most scallops that you see at market are called “wet” scallops, soaked in very cold water at sea after harvesting (and, most likely, preservative solutions such as sodium benzoate or sodium tripolyphosphate to keep them glossy and white). You might think that you are sautéing them in olive oil or the like but you are also steaming them in those liquids.
The best scallops to buy, if you can get them, are “dry” scallops. Sure, they have a much shorter shelf life and are more expensive, but you can get a crust on them in a way not possible with wet scallops. So, quickly crust them, flip them, crust again, and they’re done. Sixty to 90 seconds a side should do it, depending on the thickness of the scallops.
Flaky-fleshed fish
The rule for cooking most other fish was always “10 minutes per inch” over the heat, but, depending on the heat (stovetop, oven or grill), that can be way too long.
It’s best to learn to cook flaky fish by touch rather than by time or temperature. Push down with your fingertip on a piece of fish as it cooks and gauge its resistance. That will tell you it’s done or not.
It’s a difficult rule to learn, but fish that is cooked to medium-rare — the preferred doneness, as far as chefs think — will feel like pressing the inside base of your thumb when your palm is nearly stretched out.
Our pal salmon provides additional help. When the white juices from the albumin begin to ooze out of the top, you know it’s ready.
It’s best to broil thin fish, such as flounder or a filet of trout. If you’re broiling a whole flat fish such as a snapper, cut deep angular slits in one side of the fish, in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Doing so allows the heat to penetrate into the fish more quickly and evenly.
Before broiling, dress the fish with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, citrus peel (orange or lemon) and thyme or rosemary.
Many chefs also “two-stage” fish cookery. They cook only partially atop the stove in a sauté pan, and then finish cooking for three to four minutes in a hot (450-degree) oven. Doing so assures both a flavorful crust and an even temperature throughout.
This recipe for white flaky fish is flavored with charmoula (sometimes spelled chermoula), a heady greens-and-flavorings mixture used in North Africa.
Moroccan Baked Fish with Charmoula
From “How to Pair Wine,” Bill St. John and Chicago Tribune Staff (Agate Digital, 2013)
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 and 1/2 pounds thick filets of snapper or cod
Salt
2-3 tablespoons squeezed orange juice, in reserve
Charmoula:
·2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
3/4 cup loosely packed flat-leaf parsley
3/4 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons squeezed orange juice
1 teaspoon powdered cumin
1 teaspoon hot paprika powder
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon coriander seed
1/8 teaspoon each: saffron, cinnamon, ground red pepper
Directions
Heat oven to 450 degrees. In a blender or small processor bowl, combine all the ingredients for the charmoula and blend into a paste. Season the fish filets with salt and rub in half the charmoula mixture. Place filets in a baking dish; bake until just cooked through, 10-13 minutes, depending on thickness and beginning temperature of filets. (Press down on the top of the fish just before you believe it should be done. If it resists to pressure like the inside base of your thumb when your palm is nearly stretched out – it’s done.) Thin the remaining spice mixture with as much of the reserved orange juice to make a smooth sauce. Spoon over the fish.