Pan fried fish.

[jeff]

1 pan fish filet (any thin cut filet is a pan fish.) in this recipe I used rainbow trout.
flour
salt
pepper
5 TSP butter
2 TSP oil (your choice)
juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 tsp capers
2-3 gloves garlic

Hardware needed.

Pliers


Remember when buying fish, ALWAYS ask to smell the fish, if it at all has a "fish" smell to it. MOVE ON.


Start off with your fish facing flesh side up, run your finger down the center of the fish feeling for the bones, using the pliers remove the bones pulling with the grain of the meat. I like to start from the head side and pull towards the head working my way down to the tail. If done right, the fish will have ZERO bones, and the meat will look just as nice as it did before removing the bones, make sure when grabbing the bones, you grab nothing but the bone, if you grab any flesh you will no doubt mess up the meat.

[jeff]

Once done, rinse off the fish with COLD water and pat dry with a paper towel. Salt and pepper the fish to taste, then dredge the fish in flour.
make sure you remove any excess flour! I like to hold the fish over the sink and lightly toss it from one hand to the other. Again you do not want any excess flour!

Heat a non-nonstick pan up, butter taste great and adds a wonderful color to the food it's cooking. but butter breaks down too easily. in order to help prevent that we're going to add some oil to the party. so add 2 tsp of oil with 3 tsp butter. heat oil/butter to medium/high heat. once up to heat, lay the fish filet to the pan meat side down, make sure the fish is laid away from you so if you spash any fat it splashes away from you. As soon as the filet is in the pan, start moving the pan back and forth keeping the fish moving, do this for about 10-15 seconds, If you don't the fish will stick to the pan.
after 10-15 seconds the fish will have formed a nice crust over the meat and shoudn't stick. cook the fish for about 2 minutes. Check to see if the flesh is nice and golden if so, place a spatula under the fish and using your fingers, hold the fish in place (top part of the fish wont be too hot to touch, but be careful!) flip the fish AWAY from you. let the fish cook for another (about) 2 minutes. Once the fish is done, remove it from the pan and drain the fat from the pan, if there's any bits of fish/flour left in the pan.... GREAT! that's called fond, its the browned drippings left in the pan.

(have lemon juice, garlic and capers ready to go) Add 1 TSP butter and the garlic to the sauce, then as soon as the garlic starts to turn color carefully add the lemon juice and capers. this will deglaze the pan. once the sauce is done simply pour it over the fish.

NOTE, in the pictures I used 1 whole lemon worth of juice, I like lemon juice, this makes for a VERY lemon intense sauce. I recommend using 1/2 lemon and add more later at the dinner table if needed.

[jeff]

Carefully add the lemon since when it hits the heat it can splash up taking some fat with it, if that hits an open flame from a gas stove.... it could make for a nice grease fire.

P.S dont mind the microwaved potato, I didn't want to heat my oven for a single small potato.

[ditchen]

to much butter and stuff for me. I would soak in a lime marinate and i would gril it, not frie.

[jeff]

Then it wouldn't be "pan fried fish" :P

I'm not a fan of grilling pan fish, if I'm going to grill a fish I'm going to use a steak.

[rickdogg]

Thank you for the recipe Jeff! The sauce is spectacular and complimented the Halibut VERY WELL!!!!!!!! mmmmmmmmmmmm so good

[Eric the Ricer]

My girl wants to cook me some Tilapia tomorrow night, what's a good side dish for her to tackle Jeff?

[jeff]

Anything you want =)

[George777]

Steamed asparagus with garlic cream sauce.:cool:

Asparagus is always a fantastic side to just about every meal.