Simple and More Adventurous Ways of Cooking Fish

When it comes to cooking fish, you just can't beat one that's fresh from the sea - and if you've caught it yourself, you'll know it's fresh.

But even the freshest fish on a shoreside fishmonger’s slab is hours old at best.

It will very probably have been caught in a net in which it drowned, or been left to suffocate in a fishing boat’s hold.

It will have died in a heavily stressed condition, and may well be bruised through rough handling and having been buried under tons of its brethren.

It’ll certainly not have been bled, unless it’s been caught specifically for expensive Japanese-style sushi bars.

So we’ve got the best there is – it would be a shame to spoil it now.

If there’s one general rule it’s not to overcook it - in fact you may not want to cook it at all! Try a slice of raw, freshly killed tuna. It’s delicious.

Consider how much you would have to pay for it in a London, Paris or New York sushi bar and it’ll taste even better.

But before we get on to some mouth-watering recipes, let's take a look at the basic essentials of how to cook fish.

Keeping It Simple

Aboard our sailboat 'Alacazam' we tend to keep things simple, and this includes cooking our fish.

Frequently, cooking fish involves nothing more than lightly coating the griddle or frying pan with olive oil, heating it over the gas to a high temperature, adding the fish, some salt and pepper, maybe a squeeze of lemon juice, turn it over once and that’s it. Seared to perfection in next to no time.

At anchor, and weather permitting, we tend to cook fish on the Magma stainless-steel barbecue which is fixed to the stern rail. Now we cook in the convivial atmosphere of the cockpit, and no longer 'enjoy' the pervading fishy aroma below deck.

But ashore or afloat, with a selection of herbs and spices to hand, you can be rather more adventurous with your fish recipes.

So here's my plan.

Sharing Ideas

I (or rather, Mary) will put together some favourite fish recipes that we've (OK, Mary again) collected over the years, and offer you the opportunity to submit your own favourites for publication too!

Got a few of your own you'd like to share with the rest of us? Excellent! Just complete the form lower down this page and you'll see you recipe appear on this site.

And here are the links to these great ways of cooking fish:~

And a few of these to improve them further:~

And last, but definitely not least - not fish (they're cephalopods) but you wouldn't want to miss these recipes:~

No link to your favourite recipe yet? My apologies, but you won't have to wait too long.

In the meantime, why not subscribe to the RSS Feed (on the left hand side, and up a bit) to this site? That way you'll be notified as soon as I've uploaded a new page. It's free (of course) and you don't have to disclose your email address.

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