Breaking it Down: Fish-Style Part I

Something's fishy around here...
Today we tackled filleting and cleaning fish and making fish stock. We used freshly-caught striped bass, salmon, and flounder. Below, you can see chef holding up the fish by the gills.

Taking more fish out of the cooler:

Chef showed us a picture of a wild-caught striped bass to compare to the farm-raised fish we were using. The difference is that the stripes on the farm-raised fish are broken, whereas the wild-caught fish (in the photo) has unbroken stripes.

My first fillet!

Occupational hazard: bloody hands.

Chef's fillet of flounder, the flattest, ugliest fish of the day. 

Pulling out the pin bones

Cutting salmon steaks

These are the egg sacs from the striped bass and the flounder.

I breaded these in a little seasoned flour and then pan-fried them for a few minutes. We tasted them and they basically tasted like fishy scrambled eggs. Not bad!

Stuffed fish demo

Salt-baked fish demo, before baking

Salt-crusted fish, after baking

The salt crust, made with kosher salt and egg whites seals the fish and all its juices in a controlled baking environment where the flavors mix together. To open the salt crust, break with the back of a knife or mallet and peel the chunks away. This method of cooking will only work if you are using a fish with the skin on. If you try to do this with a fillet, you will end up with cured fish that is extremely salty. Because the skin of the fish is still on, it forms a barrier between the kosher salt and the fish meat keeping it from getting salty.

I made a fish stock! Using the cleaned striped bass carcasses and carrotsonioncelery chopped small, this stock cooked for about an hour and a half before we strained it.

Gravlax! This is a type of cured fish using salt and sugar, weight, and herbs. The fish is coated with a salt and sugar mixture, fresh herbs, and pressed down with weights or a weighted tray for 2-3 days.

This is chef's piece of striped bass that he grilled and finished in the oven. Beautiful!

Poached Salmon Steaks

Striped Bass Paupiette with Salmon (bass fillet rolled around a piece of salmon)

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Raifort (Horseradish) Sauce
this sauce is great with fish.
1/3 cup prepared horseradish
8 oz. mayo (homemade preferred)
8 oz. tofu sour cream
1 TB prepared mustard
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 TB sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

Squeeze excess liquid out of the horseradish and combine all ingredients.
Mix well and refrigerate until ready for use.
Use with fish fillets, on grilled fish sandwiches, as a base for a fish salad, etc.

Enjoy!