Poaching is a gentle cooking method well-suited to delicate foods such as fish, according to Nosrat. “Fish poached in water, wine, olive oil or any combination of the three will emerge with an exceptionally tender texture and clean flavor,” she says. Poached fish will stay moist while refrigerated for a day or two.
Frying is probably the most popular method of cooking fish. Shallow frying: The fish should be seasoned and lightly coated with flour or crumb before frying to protect it and seal in the flavour. Use a mixture of oil and butter when frying and turn the fish only once during cooking, to avoid breaking up.
Brush fish with olive oil, melted butter, or pesto to keep it moist, and season as desired with snipped fresh or dried herbs, spice blends, minced garlic, and/or salt and pepper.
The use of buttermilk is an effective and tasty way to tenderize fish, which is difficult to tenderize otherwise by beating it with a meat tenderizing tool. The acids founds in the buttermilk will break down the fish, making the finished product more tender and delicious.
Fish and shellfish lend themselves well to moist-heat cooking methods, especially steaming, poaching and simmering. Steaming best preserves the food's natural flavors and cooks without adding fat. Poaching is also popular, especially for fish.
When fish is fried at higher temperatures, it loses some of the important omega-3 fats and vitamin D with some studies reporting fish such as salmon loses half of its vitamin D when fried. Baking fish is a great way to keep the important nutrients intact without upping the fat content to unhealthy levels.
Baking or Roasting
Roasting is best for whole fish or very large fillets or steaks. Your fish will also get done more quickly when roasting. Bake or roast on a baking sheet or in a baking pan that has been coated with non-stick spray.
Slow-roasting makes a beautifully tender, evenly cooked, not-one-bit-dry piece of fish. If you miss the 120° F, just-starting-to-flake mark, it will still be good—even carryover cooking after taking it out of the oven won't outrun you, because there isn't much velocity behind it.
Before cooking, soak the fish in milk for 20 minutes
In this scenario, the protein in the milk binds with the compounds that cause that fishy odor, in essence extracting if from the fish. What's left behind is sweet-smelling, brighter flesh with clean flavor. (Just make sure you pour that milk down the drain.
Frying the fish in butter would give it the best flavor but butter burns too easily. To get the benefit of the butter flavor use half butter and half vegetable oil. Vegetable oil can also be used on its own if desired. Keep the fish refrigerated until ready to cook.
Slow roasting fish cooks it evenly—and makes it hard to go back to cooking it any other way.
When using olive oil for frying fish, you do not have to worry about any negative impact on your health. This is because, while it does have a lower smoke point, it has anti-inflammatory properties and is high in antioxidants and fatty acids that keep it from breaking down into free radicals.
Poaching is best for very delicate foods, such as eggs, fish, white meat chicken, and fruit. It is considered a healthy cooking method because liquid—not fat—carries the heat into the food. Poaching is ideally done at temperatures between 160°F and 190°F, or well below a simmer.
Firm, robust fish stand up best to barbecuing. Halibut, monkfish and swordfish are all good candidates. More delicate types of fish such as cod can easily flake and fall through the grill, although with a little prep and care when cooking, most fish can be barbecued.
Moist-heat cooking methods use water, liquid or steam to transfer heat to food. Common moist-heat cooking methods include: poaching, simmering, boiling, braising, stewing, pot roasting, steaming and en papillote. Dry-heat cooking methods involve the circulation of hot air or direct contact to fat to transfer heat.
Dry heat cooking, such as roasting, broiling, or sautéeing. Moist heat cooking, such as braising, steaming, or poaching.
Salt-grilling, or "shioyaki" in Japanese, is the most common technique for cooking fish in Japan. Fish is marinated in salt and then grilled over a fire. Inspired by foreign cooking techniques, some restaurants have adopted a new method where a whole fish is completed caked in coarse salt and grilled.