Cooking Fish for Dumbies

thisismynewmindset

Okay, this is putting me in an embarassing spot, but oh well.

I don't cook (don't know how to, even though I am a 27 year old female). Growing up my dad did all the cooking and kicked us out of the kitchen if we tried to help (a little controling over his cooking) and now my husband is the same way. And when my husband DOES cook dinner (a couple times a week we just each get what we want from the fridge), it is usually a huge feast fried twice then stuffed with cheese. My husband can eat ANYTHING and not gain a pound. So now that I am on this weight loss journey, I am trying to make my own food (with limited skills, mostly microwave and frying eggs). It actually makes me excited because now I am trying to teach myself how to cook (I could ask my husband to teach me but I can see it not turning out so well).

I have read om MFP and heard from co-workers that fish is a really good meal for people who want to be healthy. Here's my question, then:

HOW DO I COOK FISH??? Can someone tell me (like I am 3 years old) what fish to buy (frozen or fresh?), how to store it, and how to cook it (with every detail possible????). I know there are probably a few different ways to do it, so I would appreciate knowing the EASIEST.

Thanks... any help will be appreciated!

taso42_DELETED

Frozen is fine. I always lean toward "wild caught" as opposed to "farmed". There is such a thing as wild caught and frozen. That's a great option because you can keep them in the freezer and use as needed. If you buy fresh, keep refrigerated and use within 2 days, or freeze.

To cook... preheat oven to 350. Season with some combination of olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, lemon juice, and bake for 20-30 minutes. Use a cooking thermometer for best results. It takes a bit of practice to not overcook it. If you overcook it, it will be dried out and not too yummy.

For white flaky fishes like cod or halibut, i have been just seasoning and putting sliced lemons on top, then cooking it covered for most of the time, and uncovered for the last few minutes. Comes out delicious.

A variation for salmon is to slather it with grain mustard and sprinkle on some brown sugar, then bake.

I may make some blog posts or videos some time with more details.. I cook things in a very simple way that anyone can do, and they come out yummy.

HealthierIn2011

Salmon and Tilapia are a few of my favorites and are pretty inexpensive. The frozen ones are okay but fresh is the best! The EASIEST way I know of is to put them in little foil packets with a small amount of oil so they don't stick. I season them with garlic, rosemary, lemon, tomatoes, etc (whatever I'm in the mood for that day). Bake them at 350 for about 15 min or grill them for about 10-12. You'll know its done when it flakes easily with a fork. Don't burn yourself on the steam when you are opening up the foil packets!

wwhite94

This an easy fish recipe. You can use any fish that is thawed out I used talapia.



Lemony Steamed Fish

Any type of fish will work with this recipe and you can increase/decrease the recipe easily. Serve with rice or even just a salad. This recipe is for 6 people but you can cut it down to make just one or two pieces just adjust the seasoning by sprinkling a little on the fish. I added no salt and it turned out great. Hope you enjoy.



INGREDIENTS

6 (6 ounce) fillets
3 tsp dried dill weed

1/4 tsp paprika

seasoning salt to taste

1 pinch lemon pepper (mrs dash works good)

2 tsp dried parsley

1 pinch garlic powder

2 tbs lemon juice



Preheat oven to 375 degrees F(190 degrees C0. Cut 6 foil squares large enought for the size of each fillet. Cinter fillets on the foil squares and spinkle each with all the seasonings. Sprinkle lemon jucie over each fillet. Fold foil over fillets to make a pocket. Pleast the seams to securely enclose fish. Place packets on a baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.



This was awesome

Kelly_Wilson1990

I just put it in a glass baking dish and put a little butter, lemon or lime juice, salt and pepper on it. Sometimes a little chili powder. then bake it until it is turn solid looking. Usually about 6-10 minutes.

TexasNurseMom78

I love to cook fish. I like to bake it, saute it or grill it.
Since it looks like you already got the baking instructions, let me give you some other hints!

If you are going to grill it, I like to use foil to cover the grill so it wont stick. just poake a couple holes in the foil so it can drain moisture and you dont get soggy fish. Salmon, any whitfish (halibut, cod, grouper) is great on the grill.. I just spritz with olive oil or spray margerine. Just enough to make spices stick but not so much it is drowning. Sprinkle with desired seasoning. I like seasoned pepper, lemon pepper, old bay seasoning or cajun spices. Beare taht this can raisethe overall sodium of the dish, so use sparingly or look for low salt/salt free versions. There are some great ones out there. Cook for 20-30 min with lid closed. Depending on the thickness of the fish this should be enough time. I am pocky and tend to over cook it for fear of eating sushi unintentionally.
Shrimp are great on the grill too. Make k bobs with shrimp and veggies. I like bell pepper, pineapple and cherry tomato woth a terriaki glaze/marinade (bottled), or mushrooms, onion and sqash with a dark sauce, like soy or worschshire.

Hope that helps and good luck cooking!

sandrinamsilva

I usually get frozen mahi-mahi from Costco. Each serving is indivdually wrapped so it makes thing very simple.
To cook it I usually season with lemon pepper and chili (Sriracha sauce -asian isle in grocery stores). Then heat a frying pan, spray pam and add fish. It shouldnt take more thn 2 to minutes ewach side. Maybe less. You'll know when its ready when it flakes on each side. Served with green beans is very healthy.

Also make a great fish taco with brown rice and black beans. Good luck.

TourThePast

You've got some great ideas here already.

One thing to watch out for, don't overcook fish or it goes horrible and hard and dry. When it's raw it looks sort of translucent and it squishes when you prod it. As soon as it's cooked, it goes opaque and solid and / or flaky. Once it's solid / flaky, don't cook it any more.

Remember it's always far easier to throw it in the microwave to cook it for a few seconds longer if it's underdone than to "uncook" it.

By the way, you mentioned frying eggs, if they're poached (cooked in boiling water) they're really healthy - plus they are filling. These are absolutely foolproof instructions for poaching a perfect egg. They're by a British cook by the name of Delia Smith who is well known here for explaining things to people who have zero experience of cooking. I've been cooking for 40 odd years and poaching eggs is something I've never been able to do exactly right - but I can now!

http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/eggs/how-to-poach-an-egg.html

If you search her website, her other recipes are equally well explained and there are a lot of fish recipes on there.

Here is a list of articles explaining clearly about fish and seafood http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/fish-and-shellfish

This one titled "How to Cook Fish" will be really useful for you! Ignore the instructions about baking fish, because you need a lot of butter or they're dry, but cooking fish in foil parcels is easy and healthy.

http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/fish-and-shellfish/how-to-cook-fish.html

jarrettd

Salmon and Tilapia are a few of my favorites and are pretty inexpensive. The frozen ones are okay but fresh is the best! The EASIEST way I know of is to put them in little foil packets with a small amount of oil so they don't stick. I season them with garlic, rosemary, lemon, tomatoes, etc (whatever I'm in the mood for that day). Bake them at 350 for about 15 min or grill them for about 10-12. You'll know its done when it flakes easily with a fork. Don't burn yourself on the steam when you are opening up the foil packets!

Yes...this!

milehighcritic

Get a rice cooker\steamer. I cook steam most of my fish except tuna in a steamer. I lightly pan sear tuna.

Some good fish would be Mahi Mahi, Ono, or swordfish. I usually by wild caught except for catfish. In my opinion catfish should always be USA farm raised. Since catfish eat anything farm raised have a specific diet.

Grumpelina

Perfect fish recipe:

Turn on the oven to 6
Open/unwrap fish
Prep some lemon
Chuck fish in bin
Use lemon to season the chicken or lamb
Cook
Enjoy chicken/lamb

Fish = vile stuff.

TourThePast

Prep some lemon
Chuck fish in bin
Use lemon to season the chicken or lamb

This site SERIOUSLY needs a "like" button! :bigsmile:

thisismynewmindset

Thank you SOOOOOOO MUCH!!

I am no longer scared to cook fish... I will try some of these methods for sure!

I love MFP... such great people.

thisismynewmindset

Perfect fish recipe:

Turn on the oven to 6
Open/unwrap fish
Prep some lemon
Chuck fish in bin
Use lemon to season the chicken or lamb
Cook
Enjoy chicken/lamb

Fish = vile stuff.

Why do you say this?

Grumpelina

Because it's horrible... I'd rather lick batteries!

(I do have a funny 'taste/texture->sound' (and the reverse) synaesthesia mix-up though - fish is horribly squeaky!)

lilRicki

I buy salmon...wrap it in tin foil (doesn't matter if it's shiny side up or not)...put a little lemon pepper on top of the fish...throw it in the oven at 350 and bake for 25 minutes...when you take it out, take a fork to the center of it, if it flakes nicely it's done...tada healthy fish!

TourThePast

This is my favourite recipe, I've just realised I'd already written it out, so here it is - it does look very complicated but it's not really - and the great thing about cooking your own food is that if one of the ingredients doesn't sound very nice, you can leave it out!

Note, the rule is, don't miss ingredients or muck about with quantities for any recipes where texture is totally important, like bread or cake or souffle which need to rise. Everything else, play about with the "minor ingredients" as much as you like.

Baked Zingy Salmon & Pasta

Salmon steaks
Onion
Yellow or orange bell pepper
Lime
Lemon
Ginger
Soy sauce
Mirrin (if you have it)
Hot chilli pepper
Creme fraiche

Fry finely sliced onion slowly in a non stick pan without oil until it's very soft and slightly brown, add roughly chopped garlic & thinly sliced red bell pepper and fry, stir in the zest and juice of a lemon and lime (halving then microwaving them for 20 seconds gets loads more juice out btw) soy sauce, mirrin, and the finely chopped or grated ginger & thinly sliced hot chilli pepper.

Turn the sides up on a large foil square, saving a little liquid, place the mixture on the foil, top with pieces of salmon and pour over the rest of the liquid.

Form into a parcel, and bake in a VERY slow oven for 45 minutes. Cook pasta to serve with it, any shape that holds sauce will do, but not spaghetti for instance.

To serve, put the salmon aside for a moment on a warm plate and stir together a little creme fraiche with the mixture that's left in the bottom of the foil parcel - pour that over the hot pasta, stir it in, and serve it with the salmon.

It takes a bit of time to put together but the salmon parcel can be prepared the day before and kept in the fridge - ideal for entertaining as it gives you the max time with your guests, plus it seems far more indulgent than it is.

angp7711

If you want to start out super simple just to get uses to textures and cooking temps you can get the seasoned tilapia in the frozen section of Costco. The basil one over carb conscious pasta with some steamed zucchini is a super simple light meal.

All the frozen fish there is Individually portioned and most have cooking suggestions

69mustang

Salmon and Tilapia are a few of my favorites and are pretty inexpensive. The frozen ones are okay but fresh is the best! The EASIEST way I know of is to put them in little foil packets with a small amount of oil so they don't stick. I season them with garlic, rosemary, lemon, tomatoes, etc (whatever I'm in the mood for that day). Bake them at 350 for about 15 min or grill them for about 10-12. You'll know its done when it flakes easily with a fork. Don't burn yourself on the steam when you are opening up the foil packets!

I often do fish in foil or parchment packets like this and usually add sliced bell peppers and sometimes a bit of white wine.

sleepytexan

Ha you're cute! Here's a very quick and easy (15 minutes!!) recipe for tilapia, a very mild white fish. A lot of stores sell individually wrapped frozen tilapia filets for $1.00!! DON'T MICROWAVE TO THAW!

Defrost the tilapia either in the fridge for 8 hours, or by placing still-wrapped fish into bowl of cold water for about 15 min.


BROILED OR GRILLED TILAPIA FILLET:

Preheat grill on high 10 min, or preheat toaster oven or oven to broil (450 degrees)

1 4-oz fillet tilapia
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp butter
pepper blend season salts (or something similar)
cooking spray
Optional: fresh tarragon or basil

microwave a lemon for 20 seconds (this helps the juice release), roll it on the counter, pressing hard, then cut in half and squeeze juice from 1 half into microwave-safe bowl.

add 1 tsp. butter to the bowl and heat in microwave 1 minute; stir.

place defrosted tilapia filet into butter and lemon juice; turn; leave for 5-10 min. Sprinkle top side of fillet with pepper blend.

IF USING GRILL: reduce heat to medium, spray (carefully! across, not downward or flames may shoot up) the rack with nonstick spray; then IMMEDIATELY place fillet, PEPPER SIDE DOWN onto rack. Sprinkle top side with pepper blend.

Close grill for about 3 minutes.

Using flat metal spatula, lift fillet, SPRAY grill rack again (carefully!); flip. close grill for another 3-5 minutes.

Remove, sprinkle with fresh basil or tarragon if desired.

IF USING BROILER:

pepper both sides of fish, place onto broiler pan, cookie sheet, or piece of foil. Close oven and check after about 10-12 minutes. No need to flip. Sprinkle with fresh herbs if desired.

Fish is done when it is flaky WHITE throughout.


Serve with steamed broccoli (5 minutes over boiling water--that's all!), and some fresh fruit. 200-something calories all in!
Enjoy!

EDIT: GREEN BEANS: fresh green beans on the grill or in the broiler are delicious! cook at the same time, a bit longer (put them on first about 10 minutes before the fish).

To prepare, snap ends of beans off and toss into bowl of cold water and juice of 1/2 lemon (see -- use the other half of the lemon!). After you're done with all the beans, dump out water, put beans back in bowl and toss with a tiny bit of olive oil and some of the pepper blend season salt. Maybe chop 1/4 cup of onion and toss that in there tool

Put the beans on a preheated grill pan (so they don't fall through the rack of the grill)--you could use foil too, just place it on the grill rack BEFORE you start the grill, and make a few slices in it with the spatula.

If you want to do them in the oven, put them in 1 layer on a cookie sheet or piece of foil). the beans will take about 20 minutes. On the grill just move them around a bit a few times so they get nice char marks all around.

blessings.

kandire

bump... to read later

brittaney10811

i always get salmon or perch and grill it on my george foreman and sprinkle it with lemon pepper seasoning... yummy!!