How to fry fish correctly
Among the variety of fish dishes cooked on the stove, it is especially popular. Batter is a dough made from flour, eggs, spices and water (beer, mineral water, milk, kefir, potatoes, cheese, etc.) of varying consistency, usually semi-liquid. Pieces of fish fillet, sprinkled with lemon juice, are dipped in a pre-prepared batter and fried in a hot frying pan in a large amount of vegetable oil on both sides. Thus, the batter allows the fried fish to retain its nutritional and taste qualities, and the golden crust makes it even more appetizing.
How to properly cook fish in the oven
Oven-baked fish, no matter how it is prepared: in foil, in a sleeve, in a ceramic pot or in a mold, has a juicy and delicate taste plus high nutritional value. Cod, carp, mackerel, sardine, notothenia, halibut, butterfish, sea bass, grenadier, and crucian carp are especially tasty in the oven.
When choosing dishes for cooking fish in the oven, choose glass, clay, enameled or black cast iron dishes. Aluminum or other metal forms impair the taste of the fish, give it a gray color and destroy vitamins. You can bake fish with vegetables, in particular potatoes, as well as mushrooms and rice. This will make an excellent dish for dinner, right with a side dish. Milk, sour cream, spices, and cheese are used as additives.
Preserves natural aroma and tenderness fish baked in foil. I often bake this way. Fish baked with vegetables in a sleeve turns out to be especially juicy: 1-2 small fish with vegetables (tomatoes, onions, carrots, potatoes) are smeared with sour cream (mayonnaise) with spices, salt and placed in the sleeve. The dish is prepared for 40 minutes, then baked in a cut bag for another 10 minutes.
Fish cooked in the oven should be served immediately after cooking, because over time its unique taste is lost.
Fish cooked under marinade has an exquisite taste. This can be not only traditional pollock, but also more noble species: salmon, trout, pink salmon, as well as pangasius, cod. Fish is prepared in different sauces: white or red.
To prepare fish under marinade, the carcass must be thoroughly washed in cold running water and dried. Then it can be cut into small pieces and placed in a container for marinating (glass, enamel, porcelain, earthenware). If preliminary heat treatment is necessary, then the salted and floured pieces are fried in oil on both sides. More often, carrots, grated on a coarse grater, and onions, cut into thin rings, are used to prepare the marinade. The thinner the vegetables are sliced, the tastier the marinade will be.
When preparing a marinade, the amount of oil is especially important: for a light marinade you need to add a little oil, for a nutritious and satisfying one - more. If you are preparing fish for a holiday table, it is better to add more oil so that it is better saturated and has a deeper taste.
Using the example Fish recipe in tomato sauce I'll show you how to cook marinated fish.
Cut 1 carrot and 1 onion into small cubes (the carrots can be grated), fry the vegetables in oil for a few minutes. You should not overcook vegetables, as the dressing will darken and make the dish unattractive, including in taste. Add 2-3 tbsp. tomato sauce, bay leaf to taste, mix and simmer for 5 minutes over low heat. Pour in 1 tbsp. broth or water and simmer until the carrots are soft. At the end, add a chopped clove of garlic, a pinch of sugar and salt and 1 tsp. lemon juice. Remove marinade from heat.
Cut the fish fillet (400-500 g) into small pieces, add salt and pepper, roll in flour and fry in oil until tender. Then place the pieces in a mold and pour over the marinade, leave in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours. Serve as a cold appetizer. Or you can use it as a hot dish: to do this, place the fried pieces of fish in a saucepan, pour in the marinade and simmer under the lid for 10-15 minutes over low heat.
In the cold season, the daily menu should contain as many protein, hearty dishes as possible. Among the many dishes that are most commonly consumed by everyone is probably fried fish. It is best to cook dishes from small river specimens in a frying pan, cutting the carcasses crosswise to soften the bones. Also tasty and juicy pieces are obtained from sea fillet. There are some secrets to how it is prepared, with the photo showing what you need to bread the pieces in before directly lowering them into boiling oil. The article provides detailed recommendations and tips for working.
How to cook in a frying pan? Preparatory stage
Any product, be it fish or meat, turns out especially juicy and tasty if it is pre-marinated. As a last resort, it is enough to at least mix the fish mass or whole specimens with a small amount of salt and let the mass stand at room temperature. The fillet can be used as a whole piece of medium size (with a thickness of no more than two centimeters). Sprinkle it lightly with salt and spices on top and after five to ten minutes start frying. There is no need to wash off the layer of spices from the surface with water.
What should fried fish be breaded in before cooking?
Ordinary flour is most often used as enveloping components. Another way of breading is to dip it in batter - liquid dough. Therefore, fried fish in a frying pan tastes very differently. The recipe in this article is somewhat complicated. Breading takes place in three stages. Take a piece of slightly marinated fish and roll it in flour. Then dip it into the beaten eggs. Finally, thoroughly coat the fish on all sides with breadcrumbs. The piece coated in this way can be lowered into a hot frying pan in boiling oil and proceed to breading the next fillet. You should not process all the fish at once.
Below are the ingredients needed to prepare five hundred to six hundred grams of fish fillet (about four to five pieces).
For marinating:
Table. spoon of salt;
Half a tea spoons of ground black pepper.
For breading:
Three or four tables. spoons of flour;
Two or three raw eggs;
Two or three tables. spoons of breadcrumbs.
For frying:
A glass of vegetable oil.
If you want to get something appetizing, prepare the batter. Mix a glass of milk and a teaspoon. a spoonful of salt with flour. The consistency of the mixture should be like medium thick sour cream. Dip the fish pieces into the batter and fry in hot oil as usual. When turned over, a crispy brown crust forms around the fillet.
How to cook fried fish in a frying pan? Bringing the product to readiness
After placing the product in the oil, wait five to seven minutes. After this, turn over and fry the fillet on the other side. It is important to choose the right frying mode so that the dish inside is at the same time juicy, but not soggy. If desired, the fish can be additionally stewed in tomato and cream sauce. Serve with a side dish of mashed potatoes or fluffy rice. Bon appetit!
Why do some people turn out fried fish aromatic, tender and juicy, with an appetizing crispy crust, while others turn out tasteless and falling apart?
Fish selection
You can fry almost all types of fish. However, not every one will remain juicy and fatty after frying.
The fact is that many representatives of the marine fish family have low-fat meat, and therefore, after cooking in a frying pan, it becomes dry and tasteless.
Horse mackerel, saury, mackerel, halibut, herring, sprat, ivashi, horse mackerel, pink salmon and tuna, which are fatty and moderately fatty varieties of sea fish, are best suited for cooking by frying.
In most cases, river fish always has an excellent degree of fat content and juiciness when fried. Crucian carp, carp, catfish, trout and salmon are especially recommended for frying.
The list of fish outlined above is not prescriptive, these are just recommendations; for cooking in a frying pan, you are free to use your own discretion.
Preparatory work
First of all, scale the fish, trim off the fins, cut along the belly line and gut it. For large fish, it is recommended to trim the tail and head.
The best way to remove mucus from the surface of fish skin is to thoroughly rub it with salt, and then wash it thoroughly.
Cut large and thick fish into pieces about 3 cm thick - this way they will fry evenly and have the same degree of doneness. Small fish can be fried whole.
If you want to fry a medium-sized fish whole without cutting it into portions, you can avoid its deformation during cooking by making shallow transverse cuts on both sides.
In this case, the fish skin, which almost always shrinks and decreases in size during heat treatment, will not be able to change the original shape of the fish carcass.
To get rid of the specific swampy smell of river fish, soak it in milk with salt and pepper 15-20 minutes before frying.
Approximate ratio of ingredients: 1 glass of milk, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/3 teaspoon of pepper.
Another recipe for an “anti-swamp” solution is 1 glass of cold water and 1 teaspoon of vinegar. After removing from the solution, let the fish drain by placing it in a colander, and then dry it with a paper towel.
Many people argue about when to salt fish. If you soaked it in an “anti-swamp” solution, there is no need to salt it.
If the fish has not been pre-soaked, it should be salted 15 minutes before cooking.
Due to the fact that salt promotes the release of juices, fish that is salted long before frying will fall apart during cooking.
Frying
It is best used for frying fish - thanks to the thick walls, it will be heated evenly and the fish will be fried just as evenly.
Pour vegetable oil into the frying pan so that the fish or its pieces are immersed in it by about a third.
The fish turns out to be especially tasty if you use a vegetable mixture for frying in a 1:1 ratio.
While the pan is heating, bread the fish. Wheat flour is the best option for breading, since breadcrumbs noticeably interrupt the taste of the fish itself.
After pouring flour into a plate, roll the fish or its pieces in it. It is very convenient to bread fish using a plastic bag with flour poured into it.
Carefully place the fish in a well-heated frying pan and fry it on both sides until an appetizing golden crust forms.
Do not cover the pan with a lid while frying. It is better to avoid splashing fat on the surface of the stove, cover the pan with a colander, turning it upside down.
The approximate time for frying one side of the fish is 5-6 minutes. During this time, refrain from turning, moving or otherwise manipulating pieces of fish.
Once one side of the fish is browned, turn it over with a spatula and wait until the other side is browned.
Fried fish is ready! Bon appetit!
Fry fish- this is a whole art. Real chefs have specialsecrets of cooking fried fish, which make dishes not only healthy, but also incredibly tasty. In the article you will find not only tips, but alsooriginal fish recipes
Secrets of cooking fried fish
Preparation of fried fish:
Stage one - defrosting
Let's learn the first rule: cooking fried fish is not an activity for those who like to do everything quickly. And it begins a few hours before the main process - frying. After all, before the fish gets into the frying pan, it needs to be prepared. To begin with, defrost it properly. And here haste becomes the main enemy. Because you need to defrost fish in cold water (2 liters of water per 1 kg of fish) or at room temperature. And it's not that fast. If you decide to speed up the process and defrost the fish in warm water, you risk losing the taste. Hot water will simply cook your fish. With fillet the situation is simpler: it can be fried without defrosting. To speed up the defrosting process, you can use one trick: fill the uncut frozen fish with cold water and throw a pinch of salt into the water (1 teaspoon per liter of water). Please note: this way you can only defrost uncut fish (except navaga), gutted fish will lose its taste and fried fish will not be so appetizing.
Cleaning the fish
When the fish is defrosted, we proceed to the next stage - cleaning. Mucus can be easily removed from fish if you first rub the fish with table salt and wash it. The scales will be cleaned better if you dip the fish in boiling water for a second. If the fish is slippery, dip your fingers in salt and things will go faster. It is convenient to clean the fish with a metal grater under a gentle stream of water. Remove all fins from the fish first, this will make it easier for you to work.
After cleaning the fish, you need to remove the insides. The main task is not to damage the gallbladder, otherwise the fried fish will turn out bitter. If this incident does happen, try to save the situation by wiping the areas where the bile got in with salt and rinsing with water.
Getting rid of unpleasant odor
Many types of fish have their own specific smell. Experienced cooks know that this problem can also be dealt with.
For example, the specific smell of flounder can be eliminated if you remove the skin from the dark side when cutting. You can easily get rid of the smell of cod by keeping the fish in a vinegar solution for an hour (2 tablespoons per 1 liter of water) or rubbing it with lemon. Milk also gives an equally good effect. Pour milk over the cod and leave for a while - the fish will then become softer and tastier, and the smell will go away. The same method will work for other types of fish.
The smell of mud is a problem for river fish. You can get rid of it in this way: the fish is cut into pieces, placed in a non-oxidizing container and covered with finely chopped bay leaves (5-6 pieces). Then pour lukewarm water and leave for an hour. Before frying, the water is drained, but the fish is not rinsed.
The Basics of Perfect Roasting
So, all the preparatory stages are over, you can start frying the fish. First, cut it into portions (if the fish is large). It is better to fry small fish whole. Make small cuts all over the surface of the small fish - this way it will not curl when frying. The cut fish should be salted and left for 10-15 minutes. Salt will make the fish stronger and will not crumble during frying. The taste of sea fish will improve if you sprinkle it with lemon juice or wine vinegar before frying and leave for 15-20 minutes. Before frying, portioned pieces of sturgeon fish should be placed in hot water for 2-3 minutes, and then washed with cold water.
To ensure that the fish retains its shape during frying and does not stick to the pan, it must be pre-breaded. You can roll the fish only in flour, or you can make a multi-layer breading of flour and breadcrumbs, sealing them with a beaten egg. Such a tasty shell will help the fish remain juicy and tasty. So, how to cook breaded fried fish?
Pour flour into one container, breadcrumbs into another, and break an egg into a third. Lightly beat the egg with a fork until the white and yolk become a single mass. Now take the pieces of fish, blot them (not three!) with a paper napkin, removing excess moisture, and lower them into the egg. One, two - above, below... The egg should completely cover the fish. Afterwards we put the fish in flour. Collapse and lower into the egg again. And then bread the eggs in breadcrumbs. Halibut is especially delicious in this breading.
Now you can fry. Heat a frying pan and pour vegetable oil into it. You can add a little butter, then the fish will turn out especially tasty. You need just enough fat so that the bubbles of hot oil brown the fish from the barrels. Pour too much and the fish will turn out unpleasantly oily; too little and it will be dry. When the oil is hot and starts to bubble, place the fish in it. There is more oil in the middle of the frying pan, so first place a piece of fish in the middle of the frying pan and immediately move it to the side. Fill the pan so that the fish is not very crowded, but not very spacious either. If there is room in the pan, the oil not occupied by the fish burns. It's cramped - the fish will steam, not fry. Fry the fish over medium heat: make the heat high and the fish will shrink and burn; low heat will turn out pale and without a golden brown crust. To prevent oil from splattering during frying, you can cover the pan with a colander. Peeled and sliced potatoes in oil will help eliminate the strong fishy smell during frying.
Do not keep the fish in the pan for a long time. It is enough to fry the pieces until golden brown. Afterwards, place the fish in a colander, allow excess fat to drain and place in the oven for 5-8 minutes. There the fish will be completely fried without burning.
If a recipe for fried fish involves cooking in a large amount of vegetable oil (deep-frying), you need to remember that only hard and strong fish species are recommended for deep-frying - pike perch, catfish, sea bass, hake.
You can serve the finished fish with side dishes of potatoes, herbs, spinach, and vegetables. Olives, capers, salted and pickled vegetables highlight the taste of fish well. 
Fried fish with ginger
Starch - 2 tbsp.
Ginger - 0.5 tsp.
Sea salt - 1 tsp.
White fish – 750 g
Peanut oil - 3 tbsp.
Ginger root - to taste
Green onions - 4 pcs.
Red wine vinegar - 1 tbsp.
Sherry - 2 tbsp.
Soy sauce 3 - tbsp.
Sugar - 1 tsp.
Orange juice - 3 tbsp.
Mix corn flour, ground ginger and salt, add fish piece by piece so that it is evenly coated with flour. Heat the oil in a wok pan. Add the fish and fry for 4 minutes, carefully turning occasionally, until the fish is browned. Mix the remaining ingredients, pour them into the pan, reduce the heat, cover with a lid and fry for 4 minutes.
Fried fish with spices and garlic
Flounder – 200 g
Merlan – 200 g
Cod – 200 g
Sea tongue - 200 g
Cumin - 1 tsp.
Coriander - 0.5 tsp.
Anise seeds - 1 tsp.
Chili pepper - 0.5 tsp.
Garlic - 3 cloves
Sunflower oil – 1000 ml
Lettuce leaves - 4 pcs.
Remove the bones from the fish, remove the skin, wash and pat dry with paper napkins. Cut the fish into large pieces. Grind cumin, coriander, anise seed, ground chili, garlic, salt in lemon juice until smooth. We coat the fish with it, which we then place in the cold for 1 hour. Fill a deep frying pan or deep fryer halfway with oil and heat to 180°C. Fry the fish, several pieces at a time, for 2-3 minutes until golden brown. We blot with a paper napkin. Serve hot, garnished with lettuce leaves and lemon slices.
Fried fish with cranberries
Crucian carp – 1000 g
Cranberries – 600 g
Honey - 300 g
Flour - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
We clean the fish, gut it, roll it in flour and fry it in a hot frying pan in oil. Mash the cranberries, squeeze out the juice, add honey to the juice and evaporate by almost half. Place the fried fish on a plate and pour cranberry juice and honey over it.
Fish with mushroom sauce
Halibut – 700 g
Flour - 1 tbsp.
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste
Vegetable oil - 2 tbsp.
Garlic - 3 cloves
Onion - 1 pc.
Ginger root - to taste
Shiitake mushrooms – 115 g
Green onions - 2 pcs.
Salt and pepper the flour, and then lightly sprinkle the fish with it. Melt the butter in a large deep frying pan to 180°C, place the fish in it and fry for 4-5 minutes until a crispy crust forms and the fish is browned, and then turn over to the other side for another 4-5 minutes. Meanwhile, melt 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok, add garlic, onion and ginger, stirring, fry for 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue to fry for another 2 minutes. Pour in fish sauce, 3-4 tablespoons of water and add green onions. Mix. Let it simmer a little. We place the fish with a spatula on absorbent paper so that it “takes away” the excess oil. Then transfer to a heated dish and pour the mushroom sauce over the fish. Decorate with green onion tassels.
Fish with ginger
Vegetable oil - 6 tbsp.
Cod – 1000 g
Onion - 1 pc.
Green onions - 6 pcs.
Grated ginger root - 1 tbsp.
Soy sauce - 1.5 tbsp.
Sugar - 1 tsp.
Coriander - 3 pcs.
Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a deep, wide frying pan over medium heat. Place the fish there and fry for 5 minutes until it is browned and the layers of meat begin to easily separate with a knife, and then turn over to the other side for about another 5 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a small sauce pan over moderate heat, add the onions and, stirring, fry until browned. When the fish is ready, place it on absorbent paper so that it “takes away” the excess oil, and then transfer it to a warm plate and cover to keep warm. Place green onions, garlic and ginger in a deep, wide frying pan. Fry, stirring, for 2-3 minutes, and then pour soy sauce into the pan and add palm sugar. Mix. Keep the pan on the heat for a minute, season the mixture with black pepper, and then pour it over the fish. Sprinkle the fish with fried onions and decorate with sprigs of herbs.
Fish dishes are a necessary part of the normal human diet. They are prepared in various ways. Currently, frying remains one of the most common options for preparing fish dishes. With any type of heat treatment, fish, unlike meat, very quickly reaches a state of readiness, which means that even frying fish in a frying pan is not such an unhealthy way of cooking, the main thing is not to overcook it.
What kind of fish is best to fry?
In principle, it would not be wrong to assume that any type of fish can be fried, but some species should not be subjected to heat treatment at all. These include, for example, all salmon and sturgeon species, as well as herring, mackerel, sardine, saury, and some others. But pike perch, pike, carp, silver carp, crucian carp, mullet, as well as many types of sea fish (hake, cod, pollock and others) are very tasty when fried.
How and how long to fry fish in a frying pan?
Of course, you should fry it well so that when pierced it does not release pink liquid. If you cut the carcass into fillets, the frying time of the fish can be reduced to a minimum (the heads and other parts are better used for preparing fish broth, it turns out quite economically). If you fry small and thin pieces, a few minutes are enough.
Methods for frying fish
How to deliciously fry fish in a frying pan?
To make the fish tasty, you can first add a little salt and marinate it in a small amount of lemon juice with some dry spices and garlic for 30 minutes (this time is quite enough). After marinating, immediately before breading and frying, dry the fish pieces with a clean napkin.
There is another way: add a little salt and dry spices to the breading mixture or batter. Different peoples use different spices and traditional seasonings. Most often, certain types of ground pepper, basil, rosemary, ground anise, dry ground ginger and others are added.
For frying fish, it is best to use purified sunflower oil or pork lard - the latter option is in some ways even healthier (there are fewer carcinogens in the finished dish). It is best to fry over medium heat. You can judge its readiness by the golden hue of the crust. You shouldn’t fry it until it turns brown, although the fish will be crispier, but it will lose its juiciness and will obviously become less healthy. If we cook fish whole or in cross steaks, after quickly frying on both sides until golden brown, reduce the heat and simmer the fish for a while under the lid until fully cooked. The lid should be slightly open (so that the dish does not steam) or have a small hole for steam to escape.
Currently, cooking fish in a frying pan without fat is very popular. Of course, if the pan coating 
ceramic, this method can be considered quite healthy. There are different opinions about the safety of Teflon coatings. Cooking food in the microwave is also unlikely to be considered a healthy option. Of course, you can fry fish without oil on the grill or in a grill pan.
Sprinkle the finished fried fish with lemon juice and serve with fresh herbs, light sauces, vegetable and fruit salads and light wines (white or rose).
So, we’ve sorted out the frying, now we suggest trying out a few more recipes and which ones to use.
