Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk AL Fishing Talk Cooking fish.

Nothing like good fried bream and bass right out of the pond. Do any of you have a better way to cook fish than fry? I saw Richard gene smoking some hybrid bass and that looked great. I use peanut oil and corn meal. Looking for a way to cook that’s not so greasy.

I love some bass on the green egg, just olive oil and some seasoning, it don't take long, maybe 4 minutes per side! I would post some pics but I have lost the ability and the will after Imgur changed the format!

You putting the fish on aluminum foil?
Fillets or whole? Wander how bream and catfish wild do like that?

I like to smoke rockfish or hybrids and make Cullen Skink. You want a fish that has large flaky meat for smoking unless you are going to make a dip.

If you put plenty enough brown sugar in your brine, smoked rockfish can get to be like bacon. The kids call it fish bacon.

A tomato based chowder or stew would miss the grease. With bass or bream you'd mast the stew, then add the fish at the end so it doesn't cook to nothing. Catfish are good for that because the big ones can be a little chewy. They don't break down as fast.

I put bass filets in a tin foil coated cookie sheet with Lawrys, butter, and lemon juice. Bake at 350 about 30 min. They would make a puppy pull a freight train!

Blackened is my favorite if we aren't frying

Me also.

God made fish for Cornmeal. In saying that. My wife won’t fry so we blacken a lot.
But it was meant to be fried.

Pretty much. Wife has also been cookinh some in a air fryer that is good. Blackened striper is hard to beat

Grilled stripe is good. Run some jalapeño mayo on a toasted bun and it’s sho good.

How are yall blackening your fish?

I think my wife does it in an iron skillet

Butter in black stone or iron skillet. High heat. Season with blackening season, chef paul is my favorite ,
But use others and season heavily or until you like it.
Does not take long to cook.

Run un salted butter, higher smoke point

For bream/crappie/walleye/small bass - MY GO TO: Flour/cheap beer/salt/pepper/CREAM OF TARTER (THE secret ingredient!). Mix the beer/flour/salt/pepper to a buttermilk consistency (dip your fingers in the batter and it should coat like buttermilk would; not too thick). ADD a semi-heaping teaspoon of cream of tarter. Fry in peanut oil. Slap your Mamma good! Additionally, homemade tarter sauce. Mayo/lottsa dill relish/cream of tarter to taste (can add a pinch of mustard powder or mustard, or a touch of hot pepper powder, if desired).

Trout - smoked/grilled - or see below!
Additionally - Poached.
slice 2-3 lemons thick (3/8" or thicker) - put in pan, covering the pan entirely with the lemon slices (a 'bed of lemon slices')/cover with water/stock. bring to a low boil
Bay leaves/spices as desired. Can add veggies too!
COVER and Poach at a simmer to very low boil til done
Dill lemon mayo sauce, or simple butter light garlic sauce is great!

Salmon - Grilled in my orange bourbon glaze! To die for!
Glaze:
Bourbon Glaze for grilled salmon!
½ c Bourbon
Orange Marmalade
2T maple syrup
2T brown sugar (to thicken)
2T Soy sauce
Garlic
Little chili sauce
Combine and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Simmer rapidly, stirring constantly. Bubbly/foamy/cook til thickened. Let cool.

A brine for an oily fish, like Spanish/atlantic mackerel. Steak the fish into 1-2" steaks
Prob 2-3 qts of water/to cover the fish. For the ratios below in mine, start with CUPS of each salt/brown sugar. Make sure that the amount of water will dissolve all the salt/brown sugar you use. If not, add water till it all dissolves – this is key!
Typically I use 1:1 or even 2:1 Brown Sugar to Salt. I am not a fan of very salty brine. But the salt DOES pull the oil out of oily fish. Also why I brine my oily fish for 2-3 days!
TIP: mix and taste til you can’t tolerate the salt. Start with a measure of brown sugar, and then ½ that much salt. Enough water to dissolve/taste/add salt/water to dissolve to your taste. Can add water to dilute the salt, then add brown sugar and more spices
2T Onion Powder
2T Oregano
Cup of bourbon or more to each 2-3 qts of salt/brown sugar brine above, once you have figured out your salt preference. As you can guess, I typically double this amount of bourbon!!! Also why I LOVE this brine!!!!
Add: Crushed bay leaf/Dried mustard (SECRET Ingredient!!!/Pepper)
Maybe garlic, but ironically, I usually leave it out of this brine!
Smoke the fish over mesquite or heavy wet hickory at 185 for ~2 hrs. If it gets hotter, you can simply just eat the smoked fish!

AND THEN!!!!:

Smoked Mackerel Dip
8 oz Smoked Mackerel
½ c whipped cream cheese
½ c hard cream cheese
2T lemon juice
2T Dijon Mustard
T chopped parsley
T chopped chives
2 chopped green onions
Chopped celery stock
garlic
2-3T Horseradish
Hot Sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Old Bay Seasoning
Salt and pepper

Another fav of mine - Kimchi fish soup!!! Small bass fillets, or... Homemade Kimchi (store bought is good too). Water or stock (chicken/veggie/fish). Boil the liquid, add small fish fillets and kimchi, and drop to a simmer. Somewhere b/n 5-10 min. Add hot pepper sauce/flakes, as desired!

and OF COURSE - simple blackened grilled fish!!!

Make sure you blacken your fish outside!!

smoked

I use a copper mat on my charcoal grill, sprinkle with old bay & brush on butter.

we almost exclusively blacken.......I don't hate fried fish, but if I never ate it again I wouldn't miss it. Plus I'm trying to limit fried food in general for health reasons.

Bass, Crappie, Catfish, Redfish, Specks.....it all gets blackened for the most part (every once in a while I'll bake some filets with something like Cavenders or Pilleteri's Greek seasoning). Also, I blacken in EVOO, not butter...a little healthier and can't really taste a difference. We always do it inside with no issues....EVOO doesn't smoke like the butter does.

For blackening seasoning, I usually use either Fish Magic, Pilletteri's Cajun or the SE Grocers' "Nawlins Style Blackened Seasoning"