Do you remember that when you were a kid that your mum used to tell you to eat up your fish because it was brain food? It is one of the healthiest foods you can eat, and there are lots of things it has going for it – its easy to cook, easy to digest and it contains lots of nutrients. Unfortunately there are still lots of people who do not bring fish into the kitchen: because no matter how hard they try, they feel that fish either ends up tasting and looking like a piece of cardboard or turn into a formless mess. But with a bit of help anyone can learn how to flip, poach, sauté or grill fish like a pro. Let’s look at two great healthy fish recipes, and start from scratch.
With from scratch I mean doing everything yourself, from buying the fish at a market, to cleaning it and finally cooking and eating it. The best fish you can purchase is usually something you can find in a Japanese or Chinese market in your town. Especially the Japanese markets are well known for having extremely high standards for the fish they sell. If your city has a Chinatown, they’ll usually have lots of stalls with live fish fillets; try to establish a relationship with your fishmonger to try to understand which picks should suit your recipe best.
So with these tips out of the way lets start with our healthy fish recipe. The first one is a Honey-soy broiled salmon. This recipe is something you can make within 20 minutes so its real fast to make. You can eat it as a healthy snack, or you can make a whole meal out of it by adding brown rice and red peppers which you could sauté. It makes a great side dish that is both sweet and tangy; the added sesame seeds you toast to garnish it with in the end, accent the whole meal with a kind of nutty flavor.
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Add a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce, a tablespoon of rice vinegar, a minced scallion, a teaspoon of minced fresh minced ginger, and a tablespoon of honey; you’ll need a medium-sized bowl to place all of this in; whisk briskly until all the honey mixes in well. The fish you’ll use in this recipe will be four pieces of skinned and center-cut salmon fillet, all amounting to one pound. Cover the salmon in 4 tablespoons of the sauce you just made, place the pieces in a plastic bag, and let the sauce soak in for about 20 minutes.
Prepare a baking pan, lining it with foil, and spreading out a bit of cooking spray. Take out the salmon from the fridge, and place the pieces on the cooking pan with the skinless parts facing down. You’ll need to broil them on a high flame for about 10 minutes. Make sure that the pan is about 5 inches off the flame though. Check to make sure that it’s done, sprinkle on the remaining sauce you have, and garnish with sesame. Healthy fish recipes like this will cover your daily quota of Omega-3′s, and you’ll get practically all the protein and potassium you need.
The next recipe is the Orata All’ Acqua Pazza; it’s an impressive and strong-tasting recipe, and you can use it with bass, grouper or snapper. The ingredients we’ll need will be as follows: a cup of water, a 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil, a 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley, a pound of diced tomatoes, 2 pounds of the fish you choose, whole, two cloves of garlic and red pepper flakes, salt, and black pepper. You need to start out by preheating the oven to about 350°F. Prepare an ovenproof roasting pan by pouring in half of the olive oil you set out, and throw in the garlic and a teaspoon of the red pepper flakes. Sauté these for as long as it takes to brown them; add in the tomatoes and sauté them as well.
Shake a little sea salt and black pepper on the fish, and place it in the oven pan with the mixture you just cooked. Pour in the water you set out, and bake for 25 minutes. You’ll know that it’s done when you stick a thermometer in the center of the fish, and it reads 140°F. You’ll need to cook the sauce now with the flame turned all the way up until you’ve reduced it to about just a cup. Add in the parsley and the olive oil and you are done. A little salt and pepper should be appropriate, you can fillet the fish, add on the remaining sauce, and serve right away. It should make a great dinner for four, and bring you some well-deserved appreciation.