Tips for Baking Perfect Fish Recipes
July 29, 2008
Whether you fancy testing some exotic tilapia fish recipes or perhaps a delicious baked catfish recipe, you might think that baking fish is easy. It is indeed an uncomplicated way of cooking fish but there are a few tips and tricks you should know, to guarantee your baked fish recipes turn out great.
Baking cooks fish quickly at a high temperature and you can bake fish fillets, steaks, whole fish, or seafood.
Baking is a very popular way of cooking fish and many fish recipes call for it to be baked in the oven. People tend to worry about their fish drying out and how to prevent that from happening. If you leave your fish in the oven for even a few minutes too long, this might mean the difference between a moist piece of fish and a slightly dried out one. When fish dries out, this means the natural fish oil has gone. You need to check the fish often when it is cooking and remember that it keeps cooking for a couple of minutes after you remove it from the oven.
Selecting and Preparing Fish for Baked Fish Recipes
When you purchase a fish, there are a few things to look out for here are just a few. The gills should be red or pink and the eyes should appear bright, clear and be slightly protruding. If the gills are gray and the eyes are pink, cloudy, or sunken, it is stale and you should choose a different fish.
Whether you are shopping for fish for a tasty baked cod dish or delicious tilapia fish recipes, the same rules apply. If the fish is very fresh, your recipe will turn out better.
You need to ensure the fish is properly defrosted to get the very best results from your fish recipe. Frozen fish has the same nutritional value as fresh fish and will keep in the freezer for weeks or even months, depending what kind of fish it is. To defrost fish, leave it on the lower shelves of the refrigerator for between 8 and 12 hours.
If you want to defrost it more quickly, you can place the fish in a bowl of cold water with 3 to 4 tablespoons of salt. Then it will defrost in a couple hours. If you have fresh or defrosted fish in the refrigerator, it ought to be used within 24 hours for the best fish recipe results.
Depending on what kind of baked fish recipe you are making, you might want to marinate the fish fillets in salt and lemon before cooking for firmer flesh, a fresh taste and to make it easier to handle. You can also soak your fish in water with vinegar before baking, to make it sweeter, more tender and hold its shape better.
Baking Your Fish
Because fish contains natural oils, it is not compulsory to add oil or fat before baking. To ensure the fish stays moist, you might like to brush a little oil or butter on top of it before cooking or top the fish with seasoned breadcrumbs or thinly sliced vegetables. There are many tilapia fish recipes, which make use of vegetables or breadcrumbs to add flavor and texture.
The general rule with fish baking is to bake the fish for 10 minutes for every inch of its thickness. 450F is a suitable temperature for most baked fish recipes. Unless the fish is an inch or less thick, you should turn it half way through the cooking time.
Tuck thin ends underneath to make sure the fillets cook evenly. Cooking times also vary depending how dense the fish is. Your fish is ready when you can flake it easily with a fork at its thickest point, when it is 145F internally or when it is opaque all the way through.
If you want to stop fish from sticking to the pan and therefore breaking up when trying to remove it, a good tip is to place the fish on a bed of celery, onions, or both. This will also give the fish extra flavor.
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