I know, now they will write to me - why should I cook it, clean it and throw it into the pan, that's all business! And it turns out that Michelin-starred chefs are nervously smoking on the sidelines.
I don’t know, I don’t know... How, in my opinion, even to fry the fish - and that skill is necessary. And, at the same time, knowledge and adherence to the basic rules, otherwise something will come out overdried, overcooked, kind of miserable.
I do not pretend to invent the rules for cooking fish. Before me, professional chefs compiled, wrote down, systematized them.
I just noted for myself those that I consider obligatory. Maybe they will be useful to you?
How to preheat a frying pan?
The most wonderful way to heat a frying pan to the desired temperature, and at the same time not to steam with calculations, was found by Ksyu Putan.
If you have a modern stove and frying pan of modern production (from all kinds of sophisticated alloys), then the scheme is simple: put the pan on the switched on burner, heat for exactly one minute, pour in a few tablespoons of oil and heat it for more minute.
If the frying pan is old, from grandmother's times, one of those with which the adversary on the poppy seed will hit, he will go into the ground on the shoulders, the algorithm changes slightly. We put a damp frying pan on the burner. As soon as the water completely evaporates from it, everything is heated, you can pour oil, and as the oil is poured, we wait exactly one minute.
That's it, fish can be fried!
How long does it take to cook the fish?
In the sense of how much heat treatment should take?
Everything is complicated here, almost mathematics. Fish meat is quite tender, it is very easy to overexpose it, especially if you have fish, for example, stew under a marinade or in vegetables - that is, one that is fried first, and then it doesn't matter dims.
So, in order not to spoil its meat, not to kill all the taste, it is necessary to calculate the roasting and stewing so that a piece weighing two hundred grams is cooked for about 20 minutes.
A piece weighing one hundred grams - about 10-12 minutes.
It would seem like minutes, can they really play a big role? In fact, they can, and how!
How do you get a wonderful crust?
I know many people still argue which sequence is correct: first dip the fish in the egg, and then in the flour, or vice versa? Professional chefs usually offer either flour-egg or flour-egg-breading options.
And, perhaps, they are right. The beaten egg with the "naked" fish has time to drain before the piece is in flour or breading. But if you first roll a piece in flour, and only then lower it into an egg, it turns out much better.
Rule of Three Rs
This was, perhaps, the first rule that I remembered: salt, acidify and pepper the fish before cooking. Better to use white pepper. This will help remove the specific flavor of some breeds.
Bon Appetit!