All About: Fish and Shrimp
Handling Fish or Shrimp
Tips
The growing popularity of fish and the common use of air freight make a wide variety of fresh fish available almost everywhere, even in locations far from oceans, lakes, or rivers. Fresh fish or seafood has the mild, clean scent of the sea. Fish fillets or steaks should look bright, lustrous, and moist. If buying "fresh-frozen" fish or shrimp, it's best to buy them still frozen.
Shrimp may be sold in the shell, or peeled and deveined. A half way measure is frozen shrimp marked "easy peel." This shrimp still has the shell on, but has been cut down the back and is already deveined. Once defrosted, it is very quick to remove the shell by pushing the shrimp up from the bottom.
Handling Fish or Shrimp
How to Store
Always cook fresh or defrosted frozen fish within 24 hours. When you bring it home, remove the store wrapping and rewrap the fish in plastic wrap. Store it in the coldest part of your refrigerator. Shrimp can be frozen for 3 months; frozen fish should be used within 6 months. Defrost frozen fish lightly covered in a shallow dish in your refrigerator before cooking. Never refreeze fish that has already been defrosted.
How to Cook
To peel and devein shrimp: Pull off the legs. Then remove the top shell with your fingers. Hold the shrimp with the curve of the back up. Run a small paring knife down the back where the vein is visible. Slice gently, just breaking the skin. Pull out the vein with the tip of the knife. Rinse under cold water. If cooking shrimp in the shells, cut out the vein after peeling them.
To pan-fry: Prepare the fish according to your recipe. Heat 1/4 inch of Crisco Oil to 385ºF. Fry 5 minutes per inch of thickness. Turn gently with a wide slotted spatula. Fry the second side for 5 minutes per inch of thickness. Drain on paper towels.
To oven broil: Preheat the broiler. For a fillet less than 1-inch thick, broil 3 inches from the heat. A 1-inch thick fish steak should be 4 inches from the heat, while even thicker pieces will require a distance of 5 to 6 inches.
To grill: To keep fish from sticking, always spray the cool grill rack with Crisco No-Stick Cooking Spray lightly before you heat the grill. Then heat the grill rack when you preheat the grill, since fish will stick to a cold grill rack. The fish itself should also be brushed with Crisco Oil. Grill fish perpendicular to the bars. Turn fish only once while grilling to keep it from falling apart.
To test for doneness: Flake the fish with a fork. Cooked fish will flake easily and the color will be opaque rather than translucent.
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Tips
- Allow fish to reach room temperature before cooking. If the fish is chilled, increase the cooking time slightly.
- Use clean tweezers to remove small bones from fish fillets or steaks.
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