[Sca-cooks] Using all the fish

Wed Mar 29 13:06:23 PST 2006

What a fun "problem" to work at! :-)

  1) Clean and scale the fish (not my area of expertise, but somebody on this list will give up the instructions eventually).  Place in well-rinsed cardboard milk cartons, cover with water, and freeze.  Have never done this, but it's supposed to keep the fish from drying out.  Supposed to work for whole fish if small, chunks if large.

  2)  For a light fish stock, just toss bones, heads, tails of cleaned fish in a pot, add celery, carrot, onion (or saute these to soften in butter or a light olive oil), a bit of a bay leaf (go easy) and/or a small pinch of thyme, a few peppercorns, a pinch of salt, a slosh of white wine.  Bring to a simmer, cook another 15 or 20 minutes, let cool.  Strain and freeze.  I like to measure 1 cup stock into a zip-loc snack bag, lay 'em out on a tray until frozen, then pack into gallon heavy duty freezer bags.  Use up in 3 to 6 months.  Tastes funny to me if it's in there much longer.

  3)  For cioppino soup base, saute lots of slivered onion and garlic in olive oil and butter until softened (a bit of minced celery and carrot is good here, too, but not essential.  If you want to use the carrot, be sure it's cooked soft enough - it shouldn't stand out in the finished sauce).  Add sliced bell peppers, any color, and cook til just tender and softened.  Add some of your nice fish stock.  If using frozen, just dump it in that way (it's okay to remove the plastic first).  Add tomato products, (generally from cans, though fresh peeled, seeded, chopped would be yummy): stewed, or diced, sauce, whatever, but I like something that will still have some texture after it's been cooked down).  For seasonings: bay leaf, oregano or thyme, pinch of sugar, black pepper, a bit of whole fennel seed, even a bit of cinnamon bark, red pepper flakes.  A generous slosh or two of red or white wine (I like red, but white works).  Simmer it all for half an hour, or longer if you like, until
 it's nicely melded to make a thickish sauce. Remove the bay leaves and use at once or freeze.

  This I freeze in pint or quart bags.  Thaw in the pan, bring to nice hot simmer, and adjust seasonings.  Add chunks of fish and any fresh shellfish you like and simmer until done.  Eat with a garlicky, winey, cheesy dressed green salad and lots of good bread for dipping in sauce.

  3)  Lay fillets or chunks of your fish, fresh or thawed, in a dish.  Slosh with white wine, shake dried dill weed generously over, be much more restrained with some garlic and onion powder and a pinch of salt or seasoned salt (my mom hooked me on Lawry's at an early age and I'm still in recovery), and give it a grind of any-flavor pepper.  Dot generously with butter, cover in plastic wrap, and nuke in 1-2 minute intervals (depending on your oven), turning as needed to cook evenly.  Juices are good as is, sometimes are improved by a squeeze of lemon, maybe a few minced capers... or can be converted to a very nice sauce, thickened with either reduced cream or flour and butter...  

  I like this with potatoes cooked in their skins (for flavor,and to avoid that all-white plate thing) and tiny green beans with butter/lemon/garlic... or just steamed plain... and/or cornbread...   If you hate dill, or just want a change of flavor, same treatment works nicely with thyme... marjoram... fresh Italian parsley.  I don't have garden space - even my windowsills kill plants - so I use less fresh herb than I would like, but fresh Italian parsley is readily available and really interesting in all sorts of things.  Even "umbrella" parsley would be good here, though... 

  4)  Lay the fish in a dish, squeeze lemon over, season with salt and pepper and choice of herbs, sprinkle with bread crumbs - fresh are nice, but dry will do - dot with butter and slide onto top rack of preheated 350F oven.  Bake til fish is barely to the flaking stage and crumbs are delicately browned.

  Other ideas:

  Clear fish broth with any combination vegetables (how about slivered onions and pea pods, thin slices of yellow squash, slivers of carrot...)  Fish chunks...  A few clams or shrimp...

  Chowder

  Oven-baked with teriyaki sauce (I favor Yoshida's sweet version)

  Oven-baked with garlic butter

  Broiled or grilled kabobs with teriyaki...
  Broiled kabobs with garlic butter... interwoven with shrimp... or lightly parboiled sweet onions... sweet peppers...  hot peppers... mushrooms... fresh pineapple...   

  Patties made with leftover cooked fish, sauteed vegetables, mashed potatoes, egg, then dusted with crumbs and browned in oil/butter.

  Raw fish minced fine - not quite pureed, mixed with crumbs, egg, sauteed minced onion, minced parsley, etc, and poached in water or fish broth...  Served in broth or with melted butter, or...

  There're lots more, but now I'm hungry!!

  Have fun, and good eating!
  Judith

Sharon Gordon <gordonse at one.net> wrote:
  We have a local place where we can get uncleaned fish for about 50% less
than cleaned fish. So I am wondering what are some good strategies for
making maximum use of any edible or good for flavoring part of the fish?
And I should warn you that I have minimal fish cleaning experience, so
there's no such thing as overexplaining here :-).

Sharon
gordonse at one.net

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