Why do some fried fish turn out fragrant, tender and juicy, with an appetizing crispy crust, while others tasteless and falling apart?
Fish selection
Almost all types of fish can be fried. However, not every after frying will remain juicy and oily.
The fact is that many representatives of the marine fish family have low-fat meat, and therefore, after cooking in a pan, it becomes dry and tasteless.
Horse mackerel, saury, mackerel, halibut, herring, sprat, ivasi, horse mackerel, pink salmon and tuna, belonging to fatty and moderately fatty varieties of marine fish, are best suited for cooking by frying.
Fish of river varieties in most cases in fried form always has an excellent degree of fat content and juiciness. Particularly recommended for frying are crucian carp, carp, catfish, trout and salmon.
The above list of fish is not directive, it is just a recommendation, for cooking in a pan you are free at your discretion.
Preparatory work
First of all, clean the fish from scales, cut off the fins, cut it along the belly line and gut it. In large fish, it is recommended to cut off the tail and head.
The best way to remove slime from the surface of fish skin is to rub it well with salt, and then wash it thoroughly.
Cut large and thick fish into pieces about 3 cm thick - so it will be fried evenly and will have the same degree of readiness. Small fish can be fried whole.
If you want to fry a medium-sized fish whole without slicing it into portions, you can avoid its deformation during cooking by making shallow transverse cuts on it 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 swamp smell of river fish, soak it in milk with salt and pepper 15-20 minutes before frying.
Approximate ratio of ingredients: 1 cup milk, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/3 teaspoon pepper.
Another recipe for an "anti-swamp" solution is 1 cup of cold water and 1 teaspoon of vinegar. After removing from the solution, let the fish drain by laying it in a colander, and then pat dry with a paper towel.
Many argue about when to salt fish. If you soaked it in an "anti-bog" solution, there is no need to salt it.
If the fish has not been soaked beforehand, it should be salted 15 minutes before cooking.
Due to the fact that salt promotes the release of juices, fish salted long before frying will fall apart during cooking.
frying
It is best used for frying fish - thanks to the thick walls, its heating will be uniform and the fish will be fried just as evenly.
Pour vegetable oil into the pan so that the fish or its pieces are immersed in it by about a third.
Fish is especially tasty if you use a mixture of vegetable and in a 1: 1 ratio for frying.
While the pan is heating up, bread the fish. Wheat flour is the best option for a breading agent, 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 the fish using a plastic bag with flour poured into it.
Gently laying the fish in a well-heated pan, fry it on both sides until a delicious golden crust forms.
Do not cover the pan 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 of frying one side of the fish is 5-6 minutes. During this time, refrain from turning, moving or otherwise manipulating the pieces of fish.
After one side of the fish is browned, turn it over with a spatula and wait for the other side to fry.
Fried fish is ready! Enjoy your meal!
Let's start with the choice of fish. Not every fish is suitable for frying. For example, the vast majority of varieties of sea fish in this case will not work. This is explained by the fact that fish with low-fat meat predominate among fish, which becomes dry and tasteless when fried. It is better to use river fish for frying. Ideally - carp or crucian carp (carp in the photo), carp, bream, roach, tench, lamprey, eel, navaga are also suitable.
Before cooking, the fish must be gutted, cleaned of scales and cut off the fins and tail. To remove mucus from the fish, rub it thoroughly with salt and then rinse.
In order for the fish to be evenly fried, it is cut into pieces no thicker than 3 cm, since the top layer of a thick piece can be overcooked before it is all ready. Small fish are fried whole. To make the fish tastier and not fall apart, you should not remove the skin before frying.
First, cut off the head just below the gill slit. From a carp weighing half a kilo, I got 5 pieces.
Many do not like river fish because of its specific "swampy" smell. However, it is very easy to get rid of it. To do this, sliced fish must be soaked 20 minutes before frying in milk mixed with salt and pepper (1/4 cup milk, ½ teaspoon salt). Milk will eliminate the unpleasant smell, give the meat softness and tenderness. Fish soaked in salt will not fall apart when fried.
After soaking in milk, the fish should be thrown into a colander, let the milk drain and blot each piece with a paper towel to remove excess liquid. I don’t salt fish anymore, because for me it is saturated with salt in sufficient quantities. But my husband is already adding salt right on the plate, so the amount of salt is an amateur.
The next step is breading. I use regular wheat flour. I do not advise rolling in breadcrumbs, as crackers greatly interrupt the very taste of the fish. A little trick: I pour the flour into a plastic bag. It is more convenient in it than in a plate, roll each piece from all sides.
The frying pan needs to be strongly heated, put the oil, and then the fish. You need enough oil so that the fish is half immersed in it. You should not be afraid of such an amount of oil - the fish will not absorb too much, but it will be covered with a delicious crust and evenly fried.
I strongly advise you to use not just vegetable oil, but a mixture in equal parts of vegetable and butter.
Fry until golden brown. To make the crust crispy, do not cover the pan with a lid. We do not touch the fish in the first 5-8 minutes (depending on the intensity of the fire) and do not try to turn it over.
Under these conditions, it will have time to redden and will not fall apart. After the fish is fried on one side, turn it over with a wooden spatula and fry the pieces on the other side. Roasting will take 10-15 minutes.
Everything, fried fish is ready. Can be served at the table. Believe me, fish cooked according to these rules will be very tasty and tender: nothing to do with the fried fish served in school canteens or catering establishments.
Lyrical addition: the head from the fish is usually not fried, but you should not throw it away either. While the fish is soaked in milk and fried, I have time to cook from it. To do this, remove the gills and eyes and put the fish in boiling water. After 15 minutes, add potatoes, carrots and onions. Thus, by the end of frying the fish, I get two dishes at once: soup and the second. I take the head out of the soup and give it to the cat to be torn to pieces - it turns out waste-free production :)
Enjoy your meal!
You can do almost everything with fish: fry, boil, stew, salt, smoke, marinate, bake in the oven and even freeze. Not knowing how to handle fish, housewives prefer other products, depriving themselves and their family of such yummy. Especially how delicious to cook fish you can see at this address. The most basic problem that occurs when frying fish is the lack of a dense, beautiful crust. Often the fish sticks to the pan and falls apart when turned over. It stays moist, more stewed than fried, and eventually loses almost all of its flavor.
Almost any fish is suitable for frying. River, as a rule, contains a lot of small bones, but it is often small in size and easy to cook with a whole carcass. Crucian, small carp, perch are always cooked whole. This fish acquires a sweetish pleasant taste after frying. Larger fish are prepared by cutting into large pieces. Sea fish has larger bones and there are relatively few of them, which is very convenient in the process of eating it.
Fish preparation
The first thing to do with any fish is to remove or cut out the gills, clean it from scales, completely remove the insides and rinse from the inside. In large fish, the tail and fins are removed, they can be cut off with scissors and hidden for cooking fish soup. For the same purpose, the head is removed. There is practically no meat in it, so it makes no sense to fry it, and for fish soup it is simply irreplaceable. Large fish are divided into pieces up to 5 cm thick, depending on the size of the fish. If the piece is thin and long, then it may break under its own weight, even if the fish is cooked correctly.
Soak
The next step is soaking the fish. Salting fish in a pan is wrong. On top of any fish is a dense skin. Salt will not get into the internal tissues of large pieces. In order for the taste of the fish to be fully revealed, it must be soaked in salt water. To do this, take a tall bowl or pan, fill it with water, and then add salt and sugar to it. Salt needs about 2 tsp. per liter of water and a little less sugar. The fish is placed in prepared water for 15 minutes. You should not worry that it will become salty or sweet. The fish will absorb exactly as much salt as it needs, and sugar will help make the structure of the fish denser, it will be easier to achieve a good crust. Also, precisely for the rapid formation of a crust, pieces of fish or whole fish are breaded in flour. Flour removes moisture from the surface of the product and takes a major part in the formation of the crust. But you don’t need to bread if the pieces are very large or the fish is too oily, because the flour may start to burn, and the product will still be full of moisture and the crust will soften, crumble and burn in the pan.
Fish frying
Fry fish should only be heated to the maximum. Oil is poured the most ordinary. It should completely cover the bottom by 2-3 mm. The fish or a piece of it is placed in the pan with your hands and you immediately need to make several small rotational movements. When a cold product, and even more so wet, comes into contact with the pan, the oil underneath it leaves, which means that the fish will begin to grab the surface and stick. If you move the fish a little, pressing lightly with your fingers, the oil will again fall under it and the process of crust formation will immediately begin. Periodically, it needs to be moved a little so that the oil flows under the fish constantly.
Whether you're frying the fish whole or in chunks, make sure the pan is the right size for the amount of fish. If the fish is in contact with each other, then it does not warm up well, and the longer it takes to heat it up, the more moisture it releases. As a result, the fish will begin to stew in its own juice.
Most often, housewives make the main mistake - they turn the fish over prematurely. Turn over only when the underside is covered with a dry, dense crust. In order not to be mistaken, lift the edge of the fish or a piece and see at what stage the crust is. The fish is cooked from 4 to 8 minutes, depending on its thickness. A very thin and small fish cooks even faster, so you do not need to leave the pan unattended.
Serving fish
Let the fish cool slightly before serving. In no case do hot pieces or whole carcasses immediately stack on top of each other so that it does not steam. But already cooled fish can be beautifully laid out in several layers. Decorate the dish with fresh onions and parsley, you can use fried or pickled onions. To give an interesting aroma and flavor, the finished fish can be sprinkled with a little lemon juice.
Why do some housewives get fried fish fragrant, tender and juicy, with an appetizing crispy crust, while others tasteless and fall apart? Simple secrets of delicious and fragrant fried fish.
Fish selection
Almost all types of fish can be fried. However, not every fish will remain juicy and oily after frying. The fact is that many marine fish have low-fat meat, and therefore, after cooking in a pan, it becomes dry and tasteless.
Horse mackerel, saury, mackerel, halibut, herring, sprat, ivasi, horse mackerel, pink salmon and tuna, belonging to fatty and moderately fatty varieties of sea fish, are best suited for cooking by frying.
River fish in most cases in fried form always has the highest degree of fat content and juiciness. Particularly recommended for frying are crucian carp, carp, catfish, trout and salmon.
The above list of fish is not directive, it is just a recommendation; for cooking in a pan, you are free to choose the fish at your discretion.
Preparatory work
First of all, the fish must be cleaned of scales, cut off the fins, cut it along the line of the abdomen and gut it. In large fish, it is recommended to cut off the tail and head.
The best way to remove slime from the surface of fish skin is to rub it well with salt, and then wash it thoroughly.
Large and thick fish must be cut into pieces about 3 cm thick - so it will be fried evenly and will have the same degree of readiness. Small fish can be fried whole.
If you want to fry a medium-sized fish whole without slicing it into portions, you can avoid its deformation during cooking by making shallow transverse cuts on it on both sides. In this case, the fish skin, which is almost always removed and reduced in size during heat treatment, will not be able to change the original shape of the fish carcass.
To get rid of the specific marsh smell of river fish, it is recommended to soak it in milk with salt and pepper 15-20 minutes before frying. Approximate ratio of ingredients: 1 cup milk, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/3 teaspoon pepper. Another recipe for an anti-swamp solution is 1 cup of cold water and 1 teaspoon of vinegar. After removing from the solution, the fish should be allowed to drain, discarding it in a colander, and then dried with a paper towel.
Many argue about when to salt fish. If you soaked it in an "anti-bog" solution, there is no need to salt it. If the fish has NOT been soaked beforehand, it must be salted 15 minutes before cooking. Since salt releases juices, fish salted long before frying will break into pieces when cooked.
Fish frying
It is best to use a cast-iron pan for frying fish - thanks to the thick walls, its heating will be uniform and the fish will be fried just as evenly. Vegetable oil is poured into the pan so that the fish or its pieces are immersed in it by about a third. Fish is especially tasty if you use a mixture of vegetable oil and butter in a 1: 1 ratio for frying.
While the pan is heating up, bread the fish. Wheat flour is the best option for a breading agent, since breadcrumbs noticeably interrupt the taste of the fish itself. Having poured flour into a plate, roll the fish or its pieces in it. It is very convenient to bread the fish using a plastic bag with flour poured into it.
Hello friends! Who doesn't love fried fish? Yes, the one who does not know how to cook it. Read how to properly fry fish in a pan. I have selected some delicious and healthy recipes for you.
River breeds are ideal for frying - crucian carp, river trout, pike, perch, catfish or carp. From the meat of marine species, red fish, flounder, pollock, hake, tilapia, cod, blue whiting are perfect. Marine species are less bony, although among the river ones there are not so bony. For example, tilapia or catfish. In fact, almost any fish can be fried if you know some secrets.
We clean and salt
In the store, the fish is sold with the head or ready-made in the form of a fillet. I like to buy with my head. So it is more likely to determine what freshness. To begin with, the product must be thoroughly washed and cleaned.
- If the fish is whole, then cut off the head, cut along the abdomen, gutted. For convenience, you can help yourself with a tablespoon. How to scrape off the offal, especially the dark film. Take special care to remove the gallbladder. Do not damage it, otherwise the taste of the fish will be bitter.
- Cut the fins with kitchen scissors.
- We remove the scales with a well-sharpened knife. We start cleaning from the tail.
- It happens that the surface is covered with a layer of mucus. And no matter how you wash it, it remains. Just rub the carcass with salt and wash again.
- You can leave the head in the broth and cook a delicious ear.
- If you are making a fillet, then cut the carcass into pieces about 3 cm. This is easier to do if the fish is slightly frozen. So the pieces will turn out even and will not move away from the bone. Sprinkle these pieces with salt. But not too hard. The golden rule is to under-salt. Salted and left for 10-20 minutes, so that the future dish was soaked. For fresh fish, 10 minutes is enough
- If the fish is small, it is better to cook it whole. Fins and tail can be left uncut. When fried, they will turn out like chips. Make cross cuts on both sides. Salt the dish, let it brew for 20 minutes. Next, you can put spicy herbs in the abdomen - dill, cilantro.
And now I’ll tell you a secret: it’s easy to get rid of the strong smell of mud (this is typical of river rocks). To do this, soak the pieces in a solution of milk, salt and ground black pepper. Proportions: ¼ cup of milk, half a teaspoon of salt, put a little pepper. This solution should almost cover all the pieces. After 20 minutes, take out the pieces or put them in a colander. It is not necessary to rinse, let the milk drain, or blot the pieces with a napkin. You don't need to salt anymore. Let everyone finish it later, if it seems a little.
Prepare directly for frying
As a breading for fillets or small pieces, any of the following breadings is perfect:
- Roll in flour. This is the easiest way to breading. Pour flour into a plate, you can add spices and dried herbs for taste. And then roll the pieces of fish. In order not to stain the whole kitchen with flour, resourceful hostesses put the flour into a bag and send the pieces there. It is enough to shake the bag and the fish is already breaded. And the kitchen will remain clean 🙂
- Breadcrumbs are good. They need to be crushed to a floury state. And here you can add a variety of fillers: cheese, herbs, nuts. The fillet needs to be salted, peppered, and then rolled in breadcrumbs.
- To prevent the juice from the fish from flowing out, batter is perfect. It is prepared in different ways. The easiest is to take 2 eggs, flour and greens. Take any flour - oatmeal, rice or wheat. Crack 2 eggs in a bowl, mix with a fork. After small portions introduce flour. It should be something like thick sour cream. Add some salt, pepper, ground saffron. And roll the pieces in batter. So the meat will be “sealed” and the juice will not leak out when frying.
- Another option is to mix 1 egg with 2 tablespoons of milk. First roll the fish in such an egg mixture, and then roll in flour.
fry fish
Now that we have cut and selected the breading, we proceed to frying.
- The pan should be hot enough.
- Add a simple refined oil. There should be enough of it so that the fish is half immersed in it. Don't worry, it's not much. The dish is not particularly absorbent. But this is the secret to the appearance of an appetizing crust.
- Send breaded breaded pieces to a hot surface. The fish is placed in well-heated oil. So the breading will “seal” better.
- If you want to achieve a crispy crust, do not close the lid.
- The first 5-7 minutes do not turn the fish over. And then the juice will flow out, and the crust will not work. Until a golden crust forms on the bottom, do not turn the piece over.
- After gently lift the fish with a wooden spatula. If browned, feel free to turn over. On the other side, fry for 3-5 minutes.
- This dish cooks very quickly. Check readiness like this: pierce a piece with a knife. Is the meat soft and easy to move away from the bones? All is ready. How much to fry fish in a pan can be determined empirically. Usually it is from 3 to 10 minutes on each side.
If after frying it still seemed to you that the pieces turned out to be too greasy, send the finished pieces to parchment or paper napkin. I always do this when I fry pancakes or cheesecakes 🙂
Fried fish recipes
Fried flounder in flour and egg
There are several basic rules on how to properly fry flounder in a pan. For a medium-sized flounder, we take: 2 eggs, half a tsp. salt, juice of half a lemon, black pepper (2-3 turns of the mill), 100 g flour.
Trim the tail and fins with scissors, clean the scales and gut. When gutting fish, do not damage the gallbladder. Otherwise, the meat will be bitter. Make 5-6 cuts diagonally across the carcass on both sides. Squeeze half a lemon over the flounder, the lemon juice will remove the specific smell. Dipping the carcass in the stirred eggs, roll in the flour. Season with salt and pepper and place in the skillet.
Put the flounder in a heated dish, always with the dark side and the white belly up. Fry over medium heat for 7 minutes. Flip over and another 5 minutes. So the finished dish will better retain its shape and not fall apart during the frying process. To understand how much to fry flounder in a pan, the resulting golden crust will help you.
Another recipe for fried flounder from Sergey Malakhovskiy:
Carp fried in breadcrumbs with onion and egg
Any fisherman will tell you how to properly fry crucian carp in a pan. In this recipe, we will do without flour. For 5 medium fish, take: 3 medium onions, half a glass of ground breadcrumbs, 3 eggs, sunflower oil for frying, 10 g of salt.
Prepare carp for frying, gutting, removing gills, cut the backs with a fine mesh, rinse, wipe dry with a paper towel. Rub the salt in evenly, letting it soak in for 5 minutes. Finely chop the onion. Fry it in sunflower oil and leave to cool in a pan, turning off the heat. Mix the raw eggs well with the fried onions. Heat a dry skillet over high heat. Dip the fish in the onion and egg mixture, then roll in the breadcrumbs. Fry the carp on both sides. How much to fry crucian carp in a pan will tell the ruddy color of the dish.
Video recipe for fried carp in sour cream
Pollock fried in batter
Sea fish is slightly different in preparation from river fish. This is related to physiological characteristics. If you take them into account, it becomes clear how to properly fry pollock in a pan. Sea fish, such as pollock or hake, takes a little longer to cook than river fish, and has a tougher skin.
Ingredients: 700 g pollock fillet, 2 eggs, 150 g flour, 150 g milk, 1 tsp saffron, olive oil; salt and pepper to taste.
Pour the flour into a deep bowl, add salt (half tsp), pepper and 1 tsp to it. saffron. It gives the finished dish a beautiful look and flavor. Mixing everything thoroughly, gradually add milk and then eggs. Such a liquid batter is better suited for a pan. Transfer the fillet to the batter. Put the pieces of pollock in hot oil, which should be at least 1 cm in the pan. How much to fry pollock in the pan can be determined by the hardened and whitened fillet. On average, 7-8 minutes on one side, if the pieces of fish are large. For small ones, it turns out less, only 5 minutes. At this time, the batter will turn into a golden crust.
Another version of fried pollock in the video:
Fish is best cooked on a grill pan. On the surface of such a pan there are special recesses. This keeps the juice inside. Plus - in this dish you need much less oil when cooking. Therefore, the food will be more useful. Read more in the article "
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