Buying and cooking fish when you're landlocked

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tomatoey
tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
in Recipes
If you live in a non-coastal area, like I do, how do you choose, prepare, and cook "fresh" fish? Or do you stick with frozen?

I haven't got a fishmonger anywhere convenient. It's just the grocery store. I'm not super impressed with either fresh or frozen near me.

I do love seafood when I travel to places you can get really nice stuff that is actually fresh.

Replies

  • kramrn77
    kramrn77 Posts: 375 Member
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    Stick with frozen, really. Especially firmer fleshed fish freeze ok- and that's the practice for most fishing anyway- it's caught and then immediately frozen.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
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    kramrn77 wrote: »
    Stick with frozen, really. Especially firmer fleshed fish freeze ok- and that's the practice for most fishing anyway- it's caught and then immediately frozen.

    Yeah, I guess that's probably the way to go - thanks!
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    Ive always been interested about this. I dont have any useful advise for you but am interested in the replies youll recieve. I live at the Jersey shore and see the fishing boats come in and go out daily. Here since we can get fish that has been freshly caught daily , people don't buy fish or shellfish at grocery stores . ( you can literally just walk up to the docks and buy from fisherman coming in or walk to the markets right on the shoreline and wait for the boats to come unload ) so I've kinda wondered how people that don't live at the shore go about buying their seafood items . when we have guests come , they always say that they've never tasted seafood like this before because they've only had frozen .
  • kramrn77
    kramrn77 Posts: 375 Member
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    The times I've had a chance to have fresh seafood it's been wonderful. But hey, when you grow up in west Texas you get what you can get.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
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    thorsmom01 wrote: »
    Ive always been interested about this. I dont have any useful advise for you but am interested in the replies youll recieve. I live at the Jersey shore and see the fishing boats come in and go out daily. Here since we can get fish that has been freshly caught daily , people don't buy fish or shellfish at grocery stores . ( you can literally just walk up to the docks and buy from fisherman coming in or walk to the markets right on the shoreline and wait for the boats to come unload ) so I've kinda wondered how people that don't live at the shore go about buying their seafood items . when we have guests come , they always say that they've never tasted seafood like this before because they've only had frozen .

    Yeah, I bet their minds were blown :) I didn't know how good seafood could be until I travelled.

    You're very lucky!
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
    edited July 2015
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    kramrn77 wrote: »
    The times I've had a chance to have fresh seafood it's been wonderful. But hey, when you grow up in west Texas you get what you can get.

    :)

    I think maybe doing more to the fish (having bought frozen) might help? Spices, marinades, that kind of thing? Ideally I would just grill or bake it with lemon and salt and a bit of oil. But that doesn't help overcome the texture issues. I need something to help me forget what I'm tasting/feeling.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    tomatoey wrote: »
    thorsmom01 wrote: »
    Ive always been interested about this. I dont have any useful advise for you but am interested in the replies youll recieve. I live at the Jersey shore and see the fishing boats come in and go out daily. Here since we can get fish that has been freshly caught daily , people don't buy fish or shellfish at grocery stores . ( you can literally just walk up to the docks and buy from fisherman coming in or walk to the markets right on the shoreline and wait for the boats to come unload ) so I've kinda wondered how people that don't live at the shore go about buying their seafood items . when we have guests come , they always say that they've never tasted seafood like this before because they've only had frozen .

    Yeah, I bet their minds were blown :) I didn't know how good seafood could be until I travelled.

    You're very lucky!


    When we've had guests, we went down and bought freshly caught lobster , and crab. In all we purchased 22lbs ( they have a large scale hanging at the docks and in the shops so all prices are buy the pound ) and paid 26$. They where stunned because they said frozen was much more expensive and didn't taste as good. So when they returned home they could never bring themselves to eat frozen seafood again because they now knew what fresh tasted like. And by fresh I mean, it was caught that morning and eaten that afternoon. So I was truly curious as to what others do that don't live close to the shore . I've always lived here so seafood has always been freshly caught and inexpensive.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
    edited July 2015
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    thorsmom01 wrote: »
    tomatoey wrote: »
    thorsmom01 wrote: »
    Ive always been interested about this. I dont have any useful advise for you but am interested in the replies youll recieve. I live at the Jersey shore and see the fishing boats come in and go out daily. Here since we can get fish that has been freshly caught daily , people don't buy fish or shellfish at grocery stores . ( you can literally just walk up to the docks and buy from fisherman coming in or walk to the markets right on the shoreline and wait for the boats to come unload ) so I've kinda wondered how people that don't live at the shore go about buying their seafood items . when we have guests come , they always say that they've never tasted seafood like this before because they've only had frozen .

    Yeah, I bet their minds were blown :) I didn't know how good seafood could be until I travelled.

    You're very lucky!


    When we've had guests, we went down and bought freshly caught lobster , and crab. In all we purchased 22lbs ( they have a large scale hanging at the docks and in the shops so all prices are buy the pound ) and paid 26$. They where stunned because they said frozen was much more expensive and didn't taste as good. So when they returned home they could never bring themselves to eat frozen seafood again because they now knew what fresh tasted like. And by fresh I mean, it was caught that morning and eaten that afternoon. So I was truly curious as to what others do that don't live close to the shore . I've always lived here so seafood has always been freshly caught and inexpensive.

    That sounds amazing!!

    What we (or I) do is yeah, pay too much to eat fish that has not-great texture. Or, pay even more to have it at restaurants that source their fish from some secret fresh fish provider, but you can't do that all the time. (Or, pay to have it at restaurants that use frozen, but know what to do with it to compensate for the so-so texture. That said, something like Red Lobster where they disguise it with loads of butter and cheese and sauce is out of the question for me. I don't really see the point to that, might as well just have cheese.)

    Or, we just have beef, chicken, or pork instead :/
  • brandyosu
    brandyosu Posts: 257 Member
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    I used to travel a lot for work and it was always nice when I was somewhere near a coast so I could try out the nice seafood places. But, I travel no more (yea!) but I am in a landlocked state. SO, I mostly use frozen fish. We do have a grocery store that provides some fresh options but I haven't been brave enough to give any of them a go yet.

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