info - cooking tips

seafoods

• how do you tell if fish is fresh?

  Relying on the fishmonger's honesty can help, but other than that it is down to the forces of nature. Smell is always the first thing, fish is something that shouldn't actually smell fishy. The aroma should be that of the sea, the more it has a fishy smell the older it is.

  Whole fish deteriorate quickly after being caught, and the older it gets the following points will start to fade and change

• The body should still be covered in the natural sea slime
• The eyes should be bright and bulging, not cloudy and sunken
• The gills red, and free from any slime, and have no yeasty or ammonia type smell
• Scales if present should be plentiful an moist
• The flesh should be resilient and bounce back when pressed

• Fish is best served still raw in the middle

  False

  But it is best removed while still slightly raw in the centre, the latent heat trapped inside, the heat of the plate and any sauce poured on top will finish cooking it. This way the fish will be moist when cooked.

  Many people however will prefer some fish, like salmon and trout still slightly raw (but warm) in the centre.

• sushi means raw fish

  No.

  The word sushi refers to vinegared rice. Granted sushi can contain raw fish or other seafood, but it is also made with cooked fish, seafoods and meats.

  The Japanese raw fish dish is called sashimi .

• before cooking live shellfish, I should discard any open ones

  True

  But first tap the shells, if they are still alive hey will close and ok to cook if they remain open, discard them.

• when cooking fresh, live molluscs like mussels, cockles, pipis, etc it is ok to eat any that do not open

False

Any that do not open were dead before they went into the pot or pan and are likely to harbour food poisoning bacteria (pathogens) so they are best discarded.

If they are open prior to cooking, tap the shell and if they are alive still they will close, if not, discard them.

• it is ok to defrost, frozen cooked shrimps or prawns in water

False

This will wash away all the flavour, if you cant or haven't defrosted slowly ahead of time, use the microwave. But ensure you only 'nuke' it until they are defrosted, do not warm them up. or put them in a sealed bag in some water.

• lobsters, crayfish and crabs scream with pain when boiled

No.

Firstly they do not have a voicebox, so they simply are physically incapable of this achievement. Any noise that might be heard is from escaping gases from within the shell. This shell is known as an exoskeleton, in other words an external skeleton. Ever noticed that unlike fish there are no bones?

• lobsters, crayfish and crabs are best cooked by placing into boiling water

No.

Besides being cruel, it shocks the muscle system into tightening up resulting in the meat being less tender and legs, etc falling off.

While arguments abound, it seems the best and most humane way (besides not eating them at all) seems to be to place them into cold water and slowly bring them to the boil. This seems it will send them into a sleep and then eventually kill them, while keeping the meat tender.

• whenever I make a batter to deep fry fish it comes out like a thick layer of deep fried sponge

  Never use eggs for fish batters (unless it is a specialised batter like the Japanese tempura). For a light crisp batter use 1 cup of sieved flour (all purpose), 2 tsp of baking powder, a dash of yellow food colour (or a little turmeric) and enough water to form a thin batter.

  Remember the main purpose of batter is to protect the food from the high heat (180C) of the oil, so it should be thick enough to just cling to the fish. The thinner the crisper it will be.

  That said, it should also be used to enhance the fish, so experiment with the seasoning, add some crushed garlic, garlic powder or garlic salt. Or maybe some chopped fresh herb like dill, fennel, parsley or coriander, which will not only add flavour but also enhance the appearance. Or maybe chopped olives, sundried tomatoes the list is endless and restricted to your own tastes and imagination.

  With all this in mind, when making sweet fritters, like pineapple add sweeter ingredients to enhance the batter.

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