Basic Fish Saute
This is one of the foundation skills you need to be a good wild game cook. Sauteeing a fish fillet is something you will be called on to do anywhere from a campfire in the woods to that dinner where you need to impress someone. Once you learn this skill, it’s an easy and tasty way to cook fresh, clean fish – easy enough to do when you are tired after work on a Tuesday night, tasty enough to do for company.
A few things first. Most of the fish you will see in this category have very tasty skin if it is cooked properly. Some, like triggerfish or sturgeon or swordfish, have skin that is so thick or rubbery it is essentially leather. Others, like mackerel, have skin so thin you can’t get a crisp on it. But ye olde fish, such as a bass, salmon, flounder, snapper or rock cod, have excellent skin that crisps nicely. Leave it on the fillet. On to the cooking:
- Take your fish fillets out 20 minutes before cooking and sprinkle salt on them.
- Heat a cast-iron or steel pan (NOT non-stick!) over high heat for 3-4 minutes.
- Pour canola, olive, peanut or grapeseed oil – you can use butter, too – into the center of the now-hot pan. You want about a silver dollar’s worth. What’s a silver dollar? About an inch across. If you are using butter go with a tablespoon. Swirl this oil or butter to coat the pan and let it get hot for a minute or so.
- Place the fish fillets skin side down. They’d better sizzle or your pan is too cool.
- Turn the heat down to medium-high; medium if it is a thick fillet.
- Don’t touch the fish. Let it cook undisturbed for at least a minute, possibly as many as 7-10 minutes, depending on whether you have a flounder fillet or a sturgeon steak. The key here is to let 2/3 of the cooking occur on the skin side. That is what crisps the skin. When to turn? Look at the sides of the fish and you will see the cooked portion climb up the sides; when it is at least 1/3 up the sides, turn. A good test is to shake the pan — if the fillet moves, you can flip.
- Use a metal spatula to do this flipping. Be prepared to scrape the skin off the bottom, as if it were stuck. If you have done this properly it will not be stuck entirely, but a few spots will be anyway. This is a critical step.
- Once you have the fish dislodged, you turn it with the help of your free hand stabilizing the fillet on the uncooked side. Gently turn.
- IMMEDIATELY salt the skin side. Trust me on this one. The now-crispy skin is even tastier when it’s salty.
- How long now? Again, depends on the width of the fish. But remember you did 2/3 of the cooking on the other side, so give it at least a minute for flounder, 3-5 for other fish.
- When it is done, serve at once: Unlike meat, fish (other than swordfish and sturgeon) doesn’t like to rest.
- Oh, and that crispy, yummy skin? It goes on top. You worked hard for it, and you don’t want to ruin that crisp by exposing it to moisture. This is why all sauces, such as maitre d’hotel butter, go underneath the fish.
