Tips for choosing fresh fish
It is advisable to choose fresh and healthy fish. The fish should have black eyes, translucent, pink gills, and tightly attached to the scales. When buying, you should observe the fish scales, which should be firmly attached to the body and shiny. Do not buy fish with scales peeling off, cloudy eyes, or dull appearance.
Press the flesh of the fish with your hand to feel its firmness and good elasticity.
Fish preparation
After buying fresh fish, it needs to be gutted, removing the innards, fins, and scales. Especially, you should scrape off the black membrane inside the fish’s belly as it is the part that causes the fish to have a strong smell. Rinse the fish thoroughly to remove all blood from the belly and gills.
For carp, perch, or snakehead fish, when preparing, cut close to the gills and pull out the bloodline inside the fish’s ribs.
For smooth-skinned fish like catfish or basa fish, you can use kitchen ash to scrub and remove the slimy substance and strong smell of the fish.
How to eliminate the fishy smell:
– Wash with rice water
When cooking rice, do not discard the rice water. Use this water to wash the fish. Washing the fish with rice water is a method of eliminating the fishy smell that has been applied for a long time.
After washing the fish with rice water, rinse the fish several times under tap water until it is clean.
– Wash the fish with lemon and salt
This is a common method to remove the fishy smell from various types of food. You can cut a lemon in half and prepare some salt. Apply salt evenly on the fish, both inside and outside. Then, continue to use the lemon to rub the entire fish to remove dirt and eliminate the fishy smell. Rinse the fish with clean water and let it drain. If you don’t have lemons, you can use vinegar as a substitute.
– Wash the fish with alcohol and ginger
Crush and mince the ginger to release as much essential oil as possible. Soak the ginger in white wine (or cooking wine). Rub this mixture evenly on the fish (both inside and outside the fish’s belly). Ginger and alcohol both have a pleasant aroma and can eliminate the fishy smell, helping to clean the slime on the fish’s body. After rubbing the ginger alcohol on the fish, you can rinse the fish with clean water to remove the fishy smell.
– Soak the fish in milk
Foreign chefs often soak the fish in fresh milk without sugar for about 15-20 minutes to remove the fishy smell. Milk contains casein, which has the ability to react with trimethylamine in fish, effectively eliminating the fishy smell.
Note: After cleaning and rinsing the fish with clean water, use ginger alcohol to wash both the inside and outside of the fish. Place the fish in a strainer, pour hot water about 70-80 degrees Celsius over the entire fish. This helps to make the fish meat firm. Be careful to place the fish sparsely in the strainer, the hot water should not be too hot, and it should drain immediately to avoid soaking the fish and peeling off its skin. Then let it drain.
- Depending on the type of dish, when marinating the fish, you can marinate it with a few drops of lemon juice to reduce the fishy smell.
- For frying dishes with sweet and sour sauce or making fish sauce, you can add ginger to eliminate the fishy smell (such as in fish porridge, sweet and sour fried fish, or catfish with ginger fish sauce). After preparing, make sure to dry the fish before cooking to reduce the fishy smell.
- If making fried fish, you should let it dry thoroughly, then coat the fish with a dry coating (cornstarch, flour, or breadcrumbs) before frying.
- For braised dishes, pay attention to marinating with spices and coloring the fish thoroughly. When braising, do not turn or mix the fish too much, and avoid boiling the sauce vigorously, which can cause the fish to break apart.
- For boiled or steamed dishes, take the fish out as soon as it is cooked and serve it hot. Avoid overcooking, as it can make the fish mushy and lose its sweetness.
Note:
When preparing fish dishes, you should pay attention to how to minimize the fishy taste by using certain spices and cooking methods, such as washing the fish with salt, removing the fishy membrane and blood from the fish.
Note that for braised dishes, do not mix or stir too much, as it can cause the fish to break and result in a bitter taste.
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