Article Advise

submitted: Jul 19th 2008 | by: KCKudra | Total views: 1 | Word Count: 654 | |

If you have some delicious tilapia fish recipes to try out or some mouthwatering baked cod dish you have wanted to make, you might be thinking that baking fish is easy. To be honest, there is nothing too difficult about it but there are a few tips and tricks that will take your baked fish recipes to the next level and guarantee perfection.

Baking cooks fish quickly at a high temperature and you can bake fish fillets, steaks, whole fish, or seafood.

Baking is a very popular way of cooking fish and many fish recipes call for it to be baked in the oven. People tend to worry about their fish drying out and how to prevent that from happening. If you leave your fish in the oven for even a few minutes too long, this might mean the difference between a moist piece of fish and a slightly dried out one. When fish dries out, this means the natural fish oil has gone. You need to check the fish often when it is cooking and remember that it keeps cooking for a couple of minutes after you remove it from the oven.

Selecting and Preparing Fish for Baked Fish Recipes

Check, the eyes of the fish you plan to buy are bright, slightly protruding, and clear. The gills should be red or pink. If the fish has cloudy, pink or sunken eyes and gray gills, it is stale and you should choose another one.

Whether you are shopping for fish for a tasty baked cod dish or delicious tilapia fish recipes, the same rules apply. If the fish is very fresh, your recipe will turn out better.

In order to get the best results from your baked fish recipes, you need to make sure the fish is defrosted properly. Frozen fish is just as nutritious as fresh fish and keeps in the freezer for weeks or even months, depending on the fish. You should defrost the fish on the lower shelves of the refrigerator for 8 to 12 hours.

If you want the fish to be defrosted sooner, you can place it in cold water and add 3 to 4 tablespoons of salt. Then it will defrost in a couple of hours. Defrosted or fresh fish in the refrigerator should be used within 24 hours for the best fish recipe results.

Depending on what kind of baked fish recipe you are making, you might want to marinate the fish fillets in salt and lemon before cooking for firmer flesh, a fresh taste and to make it easier to handle. You can also soak your fish in water with vinegar before baking, to make it sweeter, more tender and hold its shape better.

Baking Your Fish

Because fish contains natural oils, it is not compulsory to add oil or fat before baking. To ensure the fish stays moist, you might like to brush a little oil or butter on top of it before cooking or top the fish with seasoned breadcrumbs or thinly sliced vegetables. There are many tilapia fish recipes, which make use of vegetables or breadcrumbs to add flavor and texture.

Fish usually needs to be baked for 10 minutes for every inch of its thickness. Unless the fish is less than inch thick, it will need to be turned halfway through the cooking time. Most baked recipes call for a cooking temperature of about 450F.

To make sure fillets cook evenly, tuck any thin ends underneath. Cooking times can be affected by the density of your fish. You know the fish is ready when it is 145F internally, when the flesh is opaque all the way through or when you can flake it easily with a fork at its thickest point.

To stop fish from sticking to the baking dish and breaking up when you are trying to get it out, you can bake fish on a bed of onions, celery, or both. This also adds extra flavor to your baked fish recipe.

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Want to spruce up your taco dish ? Why not try tacos that are as good for you as they taste try our fish taco recipe or maybe just one of our baked salmon recipes

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