Jane Grigson's Fish Book - Jane Grigson [4]
More specifically – choose fresh fish, fish with a bright eye, red gills and no more than a seaweedy smell. Stale fish will look miserable; the eyes will be sunken or opaque, the skin gritty or dry or blobbed with yellow slime, it will smell, and you will be able to push the flesh in easily with your finger. As you may have concluded already, the buyer of fish needs character for all this sniffing and prodding. Getting good fish is easier once you find a fishmonger you can trust, but if he sells you poor fish, go back and tell him so.
The naming of fish is a tricky business. One name may be used for quite different species. Local names abound. There are misleading inducements: certain fish which bear labels saying ‘rock salmon’ and ‘rock turbot’ have nothing in common with ‘salmon’ and ‘turbot’. When you go on holiday, foreign names add to the confusion. Because of this intricately knotted muddle, the United Nations has produced the Multilingual Dictionary of Fish and Fish Products, an international compilation with names from fifteen languages, which attempts to straighten matters out with an elegant system of indexing. Local names are there, as well as the Latin ones. A book to be recommended to anyone who enjoys eating fish. (I can also recommend the Atlas of the Living Resources of the Seas, published by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations in 1972, again with an index but this time in three languages – English, French and Spanish; from her Majesty’s Stationery Office.)
CLEANING FISH
Although the fishmonger should do this for you, it is as well to know what to do. Cut off spiky fins and other extrusions first. Remove scales by pushing them up the wrong way with the blunt edge of a knife – spread newspaper round to catch the scales which fly about. Rinse quickly. Remove innards through the gills, or by slitting up the belly. Retain the livers and roes; they are often good to eat. Rub any stubborn traces of blood with a little salt. Cut off heads or not, as you please.
SKINNING AND BONING FLATFISH If you have to skin the fish yourself, make a cut across, just above the tail. Raise a corner of it and with salted fingers – salt gives a better grip – pull the skin slowly at first and then with a quick tug. Do the same thing with the other side.
I have a preference, with flatfish, for cooking them whole, on the bone, complete with head, but there are times when they must be filleted. This is easy with flatfish. Run a small, sharp knife along the central division of one side. Then scrape gently from the head end of the centre towards the side, keeping the knife close to the bone, until the whole fillet is raised. Repeat on the other side of the central division. Turn the fish over, and remove the last two fillets the same way. Therefore, four fillets come off one flatfish.
BONING WHOLE FISH, HERRING, ETC Cut off the head, slit the belly, and clean. Lay the fish on a board, cut side down, and press along the backbone steadily. Turn it over and pick out the backbone and the other small bones, which will be sticking up.
COOKING FISH
BOILING A method only suitable for soups, when every scrap of flavour is to be extracted from the fish for the benefit of the liquid.
BRAISING, BAKING AND ROASTING This includes all methods of cooking fish in the oven; sometimes on a bed of herbs and vegetables; sometimes with fish stock or wine, as well as butter and oil. Instructions are given with each recipe, as they can vary a great deal.
COOKING IN FOIL For large fish – Few of us have the space to store an enormous fish kettle that may be used only once or twice a year. Foil solves the problem and we can wrap the fish up without the least worry that it will lose flavour to the water or bouillon. And it cannot become too dry either. See the method for cooking salmon in foil on p. 306.
For medium fish – Place the foil on a baking sheet, and the fish on the foil. Pour over 4–6 tablespoons of good dry white wine, or put a lump