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Preparing Fish

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Did you know we should incorporate two portions of fish a week, including one oily fish, as this is particularly high in omega 3 for a healthy heart?  More and more people want to include fish into their weekly diets after learning about the health benefits. Our fish cookery classes are a brilliant way of learning an array of recipes that you can easily cook at home for nutritious and delicious meals.

If you’ve found a tempting recipe and are eager to try it out then here’s some useful tips to consider and buying and storing fish to ensure a super tasty result.

Tips for buying fish

  • Smell it! Fresh fish should smell sweet: you should feel that you’re standing at the ocean’s edge.  A fresh fish should not smell ‘fishy’.
  • Look at it! Whole fish should look as they were just pulled from the water. Eyes should be bright and no signs of cloudiness. Flesh should be firm and bounce back when touched.  There should be no discoloration or brown or yellow edges. The flesh in fillets shouldn’t separate.
  • Check the gills! Gills should be red in colour and wet, rather than dry or slimy.

Tips for storing fish

Fish deteriorates as soon as they leave the water.

  • Refrigerate it immediately! Fish is highly perishable and will only keep in the fridge for 1-2 days.
  • Freeze it! If you know you are not able to cook the fish instantly, freeze it.  By placing it in an airtight container, it removes all the air and retains the flavours.  For best taste and nutrition, use up the frozen fish within 2 weeks of freezing.  Always thaw fish in the refrigerator or in cold water.

Cooking fish

The biggest temptation is to overcook it.

When fish is cooked, the proteins relax and loosen, then reattach to each other and combine.  This process squeezes out the water and the molecules shrink, pressing closer together.  You can see this process happening as the changes colour from translucent to opaque. Light isn’t able to pass through the combined protein, therefore we know fish is cooked when it is opaque.

You can also test when fish is cooked as it should ‘flake’. As fish have very little connective tissue and fat, they are quite delicate when cooked. By inserting a fork or knife gently into the thickest part of the fish and twisting, the flesh should begin to separate along the natural lines.

Fish is very delicate so it’s easy to overcook, which will toughen the texture and spoil the taste. Remember that a heated pan holds heat, so when the fish just begins to become translucent, remove from the heat so that it continues cooking by the latent heat in the pan and therefore beautifully done when immediately served.

Whether you’re marinating with lemon and dill, adding ginger, garlic or chopped onions, or planning to use it in a warming fish pie, these useful tips will ensure your fish tastes like perfection!

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