You know that beautiful piece of fish you always order in restaurants, the one with the nice crispy skin that you can never seem to replicate at home?  It has probably been pan seared.  The key to achieving crispy fish skin is to use very high heat, and to serve the fish as soon as possible after it is finished.

Like pan-roasting chicken, this restaurant classic is a hybrid cooking technique that uses the stove top for the initial sear and the oven to finish cooking the fish through.

Here’s one of the best methods to cook restaurant quality fish at home:

Pan Searing Fish
(demonstrated using black cod fillets)

1.  Cut your fish fillet into steaks (the industry standard is 6 oz of fish per entrée portion).

2.  Pull out any pin bones using needle nose pliers. Wash the pliers in a cup of water after each bone to make sure you’re not bringing the bones back to the fish. 

3.  Salt the fish liberally. 

4.  In frying or sauté pan, get a high smoke point oil (such as peanut, grapeseed or vegetable … no extra virgin olive oil or Camelina oil please!) very hot.  Be careful not to get it so hot that it begins to smoke though.

5.  Gently place the fish in the pan, skin side down.  Be careful to lay the fish in the pan starting with the edge facing you, so that any splashing hot oil caused by the rest of the fish entering the pan will travel away from you. 

6.  Once the skin has crisped, move the entire pan to a 400 degree oven (make sure you’re using a pan with a handle that can withstand this heat (metal is best). 

7.  When the fish has become opaque, remove it from the oven.

8.  Gently flip your fish (again, be careful of splashing oil!) and briefly sear the other side, just to give it some color, and serve.

Warning: Don’t forget that the pan’s handle is now rocket hot!  Make sure everyone in your kitchen knows it too so somebody doesn’t grab what they think is a cool pan handle and burn themselves.  We recommend using the professional chef’s symbol for “hot pan, be careful!” which is a hot pad or towel draped over the handle (just make sure it doesn’t touch your heating elements or gas flame).

This method will work for almost any fish, and works particularly well with black cod, rainbow trout, wild salmon (we recommend King salmon or Pink salmon fillets), or mahi mahi fillets.

Flat fish (such as Pacific halibut or dover sole) tend to have darker, more leathery skin.  Because of this, we recommend removing the fish skin prior to pan searing.  Obviously there won’t be any crispy skin at the end, but the fish will still be delicious.

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Seared Salmon with Morel Balsamic “Beurre Rouge”

Less acidic than a vinaigrette with a hint of bite from the vinegar and lemon, this sauce compliments salmon beautifully. It adds richness to lighter salmon and brightens up heavier salmon varieties. The fruity/musky balsamic flavor blends into a delicious earthy finish from the morels.

Drink Pairings: Red Burgundy or Sangiovese from Italy (perhaps Chianti)

Ingredients:                 (Makes 4 Servings)
16oz Salmon Fillets (we used pink salmon fillets)
1 Large Shallot, finely minced
1 cup Aged Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed
1 ½ cups Fresh Morel Mushrooms
Unsalted Butter
Olive Oil

Directions:
1. Saute the morels in butter (Butter Sautéed Morels Recipe). Slice them into disks.

2. In a separate pan, sweat the shallot in oil until translucent.

3. Pour in the balsamic vinegar, simmer to reduce its volume by half.

4. Add the cooked morel slices, lemon juice and 5 tbsp of butter.  Stir the butter in slowly over low heat, adding it in pieces rather than all at once. 

5. If the balsamic mixture has gotten too sweet, add a little more lemon juice to brighten it up.  Place the sauce on the back of your stove (off the burners, but still warm), until you’re ready to serve it.

6. Cut the salmon into individual servings and pan sear them (How to Pan Sear Fish).

7. Serve the salmon with some of the “beurre rouge” drizzled over the top. Make sure each plate gets some of the morel pieces.

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Poaching is a gentle, low-fat cooking technique popular with restaurants looking to create mild, moist, and healthy fish dishes.  This method can be used with any fish fillets, including Pacific Halibut fillets (pictured), Pacific snapper fillets, and Mahi Mahi fillets.

The other benefit of using this technique is that you are only a few short steps away from a delicious, sweet sauce when you’re done.

Ingredients:
6 oz of fish per person
1 oz fennel bulb (~ 1/5^th of a bulb) chopped into sticks
1 tsp cracked fennel seed
1 tsp cracked coriander
8 scallions per steak (trimmed but left long)
Tellicherry pepper, lemon juice, and salt to taste
½ bay leaf
1 tablespoon of butter
Fish fumet to almost cover
Finishing salt (optional, but recommended as poached fish can be pale)

(Pacific Halibut shown, served with Pan Fried Rice Cakes)

Poaching the Fish:
1.  In a steep sided pot or pan make a bed with the fennel bulb, chives, and spices. 

2.  Put the fish on top and surround it with the fish fumet. 

3.  Bring the fumet to a simmer.

4.  Cover and move to 450 degree oven. 

5.  After a few minutes, flip the fish. 

6.  Once the fish has cooked through (and is opaque), remove the fish and keep it warm. 

Making the Sauce:
1.  Season the resulting broth with lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

2.  Reduce the broth a little bit to concentrate the flavors. 

3.  Remove the pot from the heat and swirl in the butter. 

Plating:
Serve the fish with a rice cake (bamboo rice cake depicted), lentils, or rice pilaf, the fish fumet sauce, and some of the scallions.  For added color on the plate and flavor, consider dusting the halibut lightly with a finishing salt (Hawaiian black sea salt depicted).

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(serves 4)

Searing fish (called tataki style in Japanese) is a technique that allows you to add a flavorful cooked crust to your sashimi for contrasting flavors and textures. We’ve paired the sushi-grade ahi used in this dish with a fresh wasabi vinaigrette and wasabi smashed potatoes.  You can omit the potatoes and serve smaller portions of the ahi as an appetizer.

It is important to use sushi-grade fish, as the middle of each steak will be quite raw. 

Seared Ahi Ingredients:
4 5oz Sushi Grade Ahi Tuna Steaks
Sea Salt to taste
1 bunch of scallions or Japanese green onions (negi)
Peanut or grapeseed oil

1. Heat an oiled (grapeseed or peanut oil) cast iron skillet until quite hot. Finely slice the scallions. Dry the ahi tuna steaks and lightly season them with sea salt.

2. Add the ahi tuna steaks to the skillet, searing them on each side just until a golden brown crust is formed.

3. Remove the steaks from the heat, and slice them into ¼ inch thick slices, following the grain of the fish.

4. Plate the ahi steak slices topped with the sliced scallions.  Drizzle on the wasabi vinaigrette or sauce of your choice.  Serve.

Flavor Variations: You could also crust the tuna with spices or chile powder prior to searing it.  We recommend using just enough to accent rather than overpower the flavor of the fish.

Additional Presentation Idea: Use a vegetable peeler to cut long, thin strips from a cucumber, and use them to add extra color and refreshing crispness to your dish.

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1) Lay the fillet on a cutting board, skin side down.
2) On the narrower tail end, make a cut between the skin and the flesh that is deep enough so that you can grab the skin with your other hand.
3) Put your knife at a 45 degree angle to the cutting board, grab the skin with your other hand, and simply hold the knife(almost as if you are scraping the skin) while you pull the skin with your other hand.

This technique, which is demonstrated below using a King salmon fillet, takes some practice and good knife skills, but it is the best method.

After commenting on Team O’s blog about how I always butcher wild salmon when I try to remove the skin, Hillary e-mailed me with the following advice:

“Bring 1/2-inch of water to a slow boil in a shallow, wide frying pan. Place the salmon, skin side down, in the water for about 60 seconds. Carefully remove the salmon from the water and the skin will peel right off. The hot water will just barely start cooking the fish – not enough to affect the recipe. Gently rinse the fish and you’re good to go!”

So if you’re as challenged as I am at filleting fish, give this a go.   

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This recipe is certainly a sophisticated take on fish & chips, but if you want to really go all out, check out Lazaro’s Cuban Fish & Chips.  Lazaro will be guest posting here soon, but if you can’t wait to check out his consistently impressive creations, go to Lazaro Cooks Now!

Perch and Sunchoke Fish & Chips with Caper & Piquillo Tartar Sauce

Perch in tempura batter fries up buttery, crunchy, and fluffy, yet firm, a great sustainable alternative to overfished Atlantic cod.  Sunchoke chips offer a more complex creamy-sweet flavor than conventional potato chips.

Drink Pairings: Pilsner or Hefeweizen Beer

Ingredients: (Makes 4 servings)
3 Egg Yolks
2lbs Yellow Lake Perch Fillets
2lbs of Sunchokes
Up to 16 oz Olive oil & Grapeseed Oil for Aioli (amount varies)
½ tsp Dijon Mustard
A splash of Champagne Vinegar
2 Piquillo Peppers, chopped
1 tbsp Capers, rinsed
1 cup of Rice Flour
¾ cup Sparkling Water
Canola Oil for frying
Optional: Truffle Oil or Truffle Salt

Directions:

1.  For the tartar sauce: Make a basic mayonnaise with the two egg yolks, Champagne Vinegar, a pinch of salt, Dijon mustard and 50% Olive Oil, 50% Grapeseed Oil.  Stir in the pequillos and capers.

2.  Thinly slice the sunchokes, with the skin on, using a mandoline.  Soak in water & fry in 375 degree oil following the instructions at how to make homemade chips.  We recommend salting with truffle salt or drizzling with truffle oil while still hot.

3.  Cut the butterflied perch fillets in half.  Lightly salt them.

4.  Make the tempura batter by lightly mixing together the remaining egg yolk (beaten), sparkling water, salt and pepper and the rice flour.  If it’s too thin add more flour, if it’s too thick, add water.

5.  Dip the perch fillets in the batter, and fry them in 375 degree oil until lightly golden brown.  Drain on paper towels.

6.  Serve the fried perch with the sunchoke chips and tartar sauce.

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Swordfish has robust, meaty flesh, making it an ideal choice when grilling.  As it also takes to marinades very well, why not introduce a little extra flavor?

Simple Swordfish Marinade Ingredients:
Several sprigs of fresh thyme
Sliced Garlic
Olive Oil
(6 oz per person of swordfish fillet, cut into steaks)

Swordfish Grilling Instructions:

Once the fish has marinated for up to a day (covered in the bottom of the fridge), remove it from the marinade, season it with salt, and brush it and the grill with oil.  Grill on each side until opaque and you get good grill marks.  Serve with lemon, steamed asparagus and/or nutty wild rice.

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This recipe tempers the richness of black cod with the acidic bite of a pickled salad and an earthy broth made by reconstituting dried shitake mushrooms.  The cod steaks are first quickly seared in hot oil to crisp their skin and develop flavor, then gently finished in the oven.  A small pinch of potent dill pollen adds color and helps to bring the flavors together. 

Black Cod in Shitake Broth with Pickled Fennel Salad
Serves 6

Pan Seared Black Cod
36 oz of black cod fillets, cut into 6oz steaks
Dill pollen to taste 

Shitake Broth
½ Yellow onion
½ Fennel bulb
1 Cup dried shitake mushrooms 

Pickled Fennel Salad
½ Fennel bulb
½ Shallot
1/8 Cup rice wine vinegar
1/8 Cup champagne vinegar
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Directions:
1.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2.  Pull apart the sections of the half fennel bulb and slice them very thin.  This is a quick pickle, so the thinner they are the better. 

3.  Finely dice the half shallot. 

4.  Pour both vinegars into a small saucepan and add the shallot.

5.  Simmer the vinegar for a few minutes until the shallot is cooked through. 

6.  Pour the hot shallot and vinegar mixture over the sliced fennel in a small bowl.  Cover the bowl and move the salad to the fridge to marinate while you work on other parts of the dish.  When the fennel is tender, but with a small crunch, remove the salad from the fridge and add the olive oil.  Lightly toss.

7. Slice the other half of the fennel bulb and the half onion and sauté them with oil in a pot until translucent. 

8.  Add the dried shitake mushrooms and enough water to cover. 

9.  Simmer the broth until the shitakes have reconstituted and the liquid has become dark and fragrant. 

10.  Taste for flavor and season with salt & pepper.  When the strength of the broth is to your liking, strain out all the vegetables and mushrooms and discard them, reserving the broth.

11.  Pour a small amount of high-smoke point oil into a frying or sauté pan with an oven-safe handle, and get the pan very hot.

12.  Salt each cod steak liberally and carefully place it skin side down in the hot oil.  Be careful to lay the fish in the pan starting with the edge facing you, so that any splashing hot oil caused by the rest of the fish hitting the pan will travel away from you. 

13.  Once the skin has crisped, move the entire pan to your oven, and bake it at 400 degrees.

14.  While the pan is in the oven, reheat the shitake broth.

15.  Once the cod has become opaque, remove the pan from the oven.  Lay the cod steak skin-side up in a bowl and pour in enough of the hot broth in to surround it without touching the skin.

16.  Top the cod with the pickled fennel salad and a pinch of dill pollen.  Serve immediately.

Warning: Don’t forget how hot that pan handle is!  Consider leaving a towel laid across the handle as a visual warning in case someone decides to move the pan while you’re out of the kitchen.

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Homemade Pickled Salmon Recipe

The below recipe can be adapted for any quantity of salmon.  I used three whole salmon fillets.

Curing the Salmon:
1. Fillet and cut pieces of fish into about six inch squares.
2. Put a thin layer of rock salt or pickling salt in a crock, porcelain, or stainless, deep pan.  Layer the salmon pieces skin side up with additional salt, making sure the fish is completely covered. Important Note: do NOT use aluminum pans for pickling salmon.
3. Cover and place in the refrigerator for a minimum of 10 days. (Do not be surprised if the salt becomes partially liquid after 10 days.)
4. After 10 days, rinse off the excess salt and drain the fillets.
5. Soak the fillets of salmon in milk for at least 12 hours  or overnight.
6. Rinse the fillets thoroughly until the rinsing water is clear of all traces of milk.  The milk will remove most of the salt from the salmon fillets.

Making the Pickling Brine:
Ingredients:
For each quart of White Vinegar, add:
2 cups White Sugar
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
2 Tbsp. your preferred Pickling Spice Blend, cloves omitted/removed

The amount of pickling solution you need depends on the amount of salmon you are pickling…I usually use three quarts.

Directions:
1. Optional: place the pickling spices in a cloth bag or wrap them in cheesecloth for easy extraction.
2. Combine all ingredients in a pot on the stove, and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer for five minutes.
4. Remove from the heat, and let cool completely.
5. Remove the pickling spices (either by simply pulling out the bag/parcel, or straining the liquid).

Pickling the Salmon:
1. Remove the skin from the cured fillets (how to remove fish skin) and trim away any visible fat (often grey in color).
2. Slice the fish into desired bite size pieces and layer in jars with thin slices of lemon and onions.
3. Fill the jars with the cooled pickling solution and “age” for at least 8 days before using.

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Related Posts:
How to Quick-Pickle Vegetables
How to Brine Meat & Poultry

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Vinegar Recipes & Techniques
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Striped Bass en Papillote with Morels & Fiddleheads

Baking en papillote is a tasty, lower fat cooking method (you can even omit the tablespoon of butter in this recipe) that really works well with fish.

Drink Pairings: Chablis or Greco di Tufo

Ingredients: (makes 4 servings)
12 Cipollini Onions
1 Lemon
24oz of Striped Bass Fillets
20 Fiddleheads, blanched (how to blanch fiddleheads) (you could substitute asparagus)
20 Fresh Morel Mushrooms
4 tbsp of Butter
8 sprigs of Fresh Thyme
8 tbsp White Wine
Parchment Paper

Directions:
1.  Bring a pot of water to a boil on the stove.  Peel the cipollini onions.

2.  Blanch the cipollinis in the boiling water for 1 ½- 2 minutes depending on size.  Shock them in ice water to stop the cooking process.

3.  Slice a lemon thinly.  Salt the bass and cut it into 6oz portions.

4.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

5.  Cut parchment paper into 4 large heart shapes, each big enough to hold one portion of fish on one side of the heart.

6.  On one side of each heart lay in ¼th of the lemon slices.  Put the fish fillet portions on top of that.

7.  Add five fiddleheads, five morels, three chipollini onions and two thyme sprigs to each heart.

8.  Top the fish with a tablespoon of butter and pour in two tablespoons of white wine.

9.  Fold the other half of the heart over the fish, and roll the edges to create a seal.  Staple the roll to keep it closed.

10.  Put the papillote envelopes in the oven on a baking sheet.  Bake until they start to puff up and billow steam.

11.  Continue to bake for another four minutes, then remove from the oven (they should be in there for about 15 minutes total).  You can either cut them open in the kitchen or at the table.

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