Fish Preperation TAMSIN PEARCE
I confess that I am as guilty as many others of playing it safe as far as preparing fish and seafood goes. I don’t know what it is – the fear of failure, lack of technical knowledge, not wanting to create a mess. But if I can, I will always avoid buying seafood that is clearly looking at me or involves cracking a hard exterior. This doesn’t mean I don’t like seafood. In fact, I love it. I just want someone else to do all the hard work. A few weeks ago I bought a whole sea bass from a fisherman unloading his catch on our local beach. It was a spur of the moment thing. I already had dinner planned for that evening, but I liked the idea of eating something fresh out of the water and only a short walk from home. Just the look of the shiny, glistening scales and the still twitching body overwhelmed me with a sense of natural health and goodness. ”Do you want me to gut it for you?“ he asked, to which I nodded eagerly. A couple of seconds later it was wrapped up in some old carrier bags ready for my walk home. I strutted off proud of myself for my part in supporting our local fishing industry, but with absolutely no idea of what I was going to do with my fish when I got home. My jubilation soon turned to fear, but why?
As it turns out, many of us have the same feelings. We want to buy fresh, local fish, but we don’t know what to do with it once we have it. Some of us are not lucky enough to be able to walk to the beach or a fishing port and are restricted to what fish
is available in our local supermarkets. This has improved over the years, but the range is still nothing like what you would get on the continent. Over the past 30 years there has been a steep decline in fishmongers on the high street. Increases in rent and wholesale prices has meant a drop in the availability of fish. Fish has seemingly become a luxury that most cannot afford. But as we see the traditional butcher making a comeback in our towns, we may also start to see the return of fishmongers. The message is getting through that if we don’t use it, we will lose it. People are increasingly turning away from convenience in favour of quality and traditional shopping methods. In the UK we work more hours than any other country in Europe. We are officially a nation of workaholics and we cannot allow the time in the evenings to cook proper meals from scratch... or can we?
Fish in fact, is very quick and simple to prepare and takes no time at all to cook. Yes, it can be fiddly, and often annoying to eat with all of its little bones designed to choke you. But there are ways in which you can get round these things, and once you have, the world is your oyster.
SWAP... Tuna fish
sandwiches – for smoked salmon and
cream cheese bagels, or tinned mackerel on toast.
FILLETING STEP-BY-STEP
This is a simple guide to how to fillet fish such as sea bass, John Dory, mackerel, trout, sea bream, cod and salmon. First and foremost you need to
get your work area in order. Ensure you have plenty of space to move and have a waste bag at the ready. You will also need the following:
A filleting or sharp knife (a blunt knife will make the job much harder).
A pair of scissors A chopping board
De-scaling you can ask your fishmonger to do this for you as it can be a messy job!
Remove the fins Use the scissors to carefully cut away all the fins. These are on each side of the head and along the top and bottom of the body.
Remove the guts 1 Take your knife and use the point at the end to pierce through the belly of the fish. Move the blade along the length of the body, from head to tail, so
the stomach is completely open. Now remove the guts and discard. Clean out the fish with cold running water.
Off with its head! 1 Locate the gills on the fish and place your knife behind them. Pressing down firmly, cut through the bone to remove the head.
Now fillet 1 Hold the fish by the tail and, using the backbone as a guide, have the blade pointing away from you and across the body. Start to cut towards the head end.
Remove the skin 1 Begin by holding the fillet by the tail, with the skin side facing downwards.
2 Hold the knife at a horizontal angle across the fillet and carefully insert the knife between the skin and the flesh; while holding the skin, move the knife down towards the head end. This can be quite tricky to master, but the more you do it, the easier it will be. Again, a sharp knife really does make the difference.
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