Cooking fish, while not necessarily hard, can be intimidating. It doesn't follow the standard rules of preparing a chicken breast or frying a steak, for example. It's more delicate and easier to ruin than meat. And it definitely won't turn out how you want if you don't start off on the right foot: with flavorful, fresh fish.
"You can be the best chef in the world, but if you don’t buy a nice piece of fish, it’s not going to taste good," says Chef Mark LoRusso of Costa di Mare. To spare us the culinary embarrassment, he offered some tips for bringing home a deliciously crisp, fully fleshed filet of fish from the market. It's the next best thing to befriending a fishmonger.
Read the fine print.
If you're buying fish from the supermarket, don't fall for anything that has been frozen. "It'll say 'fresh halibut,' then in the fine print it'll say 'previously frozen,'" says LoRusso of misleading packaging. "When you freeze a piece of fish it takes out water, so you’re never going to get that color, that crispiness, and you’re going to lose a lot of flavor." Check your labels closely.
Know what to look for.
There are distinct signs on the fish indicating it is fresh and full of flavor. Here's what to look for (and smell for) on the fish, according to LoRusso:
Bright eyes: "The eyes should be bright. You should see big eyes, clear eyes."
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