Any fish is a storehouse of protein and iodine, which are easily absorbed by our body. Fish from cold seas is especially useful, containing such a useful element as Omega-3.
Pollock, a member of the cod family, is one of the cheap varieties of northern fish. However, its nutritional properties are in no way inferior to expensive varieties of fish. This fish holds the record for iodine content.
Pollock dishes are included in the diet menu. They are prepared for children, young energetic people and the elderly, especially those who live in iodine-deficient regions.
It is believed that pollock is difficult to prepare both tasty and healthy. But this is not true at all. Of course, restaurant sophistication can hardly be achieved. But I guarantee that properly fried pollock will be the family’s favorite dish! Crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside - not a fish, but a delicious treat!
How to choose fish
Pollock is a white fish; its meat should not be yellow or pink or have brown spots.
Note! Unscrupulous sellers pass off pangasius or tilapia for pollock fillets. These fish live at the very bottom of the ocean and feed mainly on waste, which means they can absorb a lot of harmful substances.
Therefore, it is safer to buy pollock carcasses rather than fillets.
It is difficult to cook tasty fish that has been frozen and thawed several times. The storage mode of pollock can be judged by the ice crust - glaze, which should evenly cover the carcass with a thin layer, without smudges or growths.
You should absolutely not buy fish that have an unpleasant odor. The aroma of fresh fish is barely noticeable and sweetish.
Pollock - useful tips and tricks
- Lemon is the most win-win addition to fish. It gives a wonderful taste and perfectly permeates the product. You can mix lemon juice with honey, soy sauce, mustard and olive oil.
- If the pollock leaves the pits, but there are still no foreign odors, the product can be used. For greater safety, you can soak the pieces in a weak solution of vinegar or potassium permanganate.
- Lemon perfectly removes the unpleasant fishy smell from hands and dishes. But you can also use coffee or its grounds for this.
How to prepare fish for frying
To properly prepare tasty and healthy fish you need:
- cut up the carcass;
- ensure the preservation of moisture in it.
Cutting
If you have a pollock carcass, then you need to pre-process it:
- remove scales;
- remove fins and tail;
- remove the rib bones along with the black film;
- cut into portions or make cross-shaped cuts on the skin if the fish will be fried whole.
The finished fillet just needs to be cut into portions.
It is more convenient to cut the fish while it is not yet completely thawed - this way the moisture in the pulp will be better preserved.
Next, you should carry out procedures that will preserve the juiciness of the fish.
Preserving fish juice
There is a dry and wet method.
Dry method
Sprinkle the fish thickly, first with coarse salt, then with sugar. Let sit for 5 - 10 minutes until the juice begins to release. After this, rinse the pieces with cold water. And place to dry on paper napkins or a towel.
Soaking in brine
Prepare the brine. It consists of:
- 1 liter of cold water;
- 1 tbsp. spoons of salt;
- 1 tbsp. spoons of sugar.
Salt and sugar must be completely dissolved in water. Sugar enhances the taste of salt, but at the same time makes the fish softer.
You need to place pieces of fish in this solution for 20 - 30 minutes.
Important! Frozen fish loses some of its liquid during storage and becomes dry and tasteless. Immersion in a saline solution will return it to its former freshness.
Remove the fish from the brine and be sure to dry it on a paper towel.
Fish prepared by any of these methods becomes denser and at the same time retains its juiciness. It does not fall apart when frying.
Frying whole pollock in a frying pan
It is not necessary to cut the fish into pieces before frying. If the pollock is not large, then it can be fried whole. In this case, it is better to use another technology. Dry the prepared pollock with paper napkins inside and out, sprinkle with lemon juice, lightly salt and pepper. If desired, you can also sprinkle with fish seasoning or a mixture of Provençal herbs.
The pollock should be left in this form for about 30 minutes. After this, the fish should be rolled in flour and fried in hot oil on both sides, 4-5 minutes on each side, until a golden crust forms that is pleasing to the eye.
How to fry fish correctly
Inexperienced housewives do not like to fry fish because it sticks to the pan. This happens for 3 reasons:
- The pan is not hot enough.
- The fish is wet.
- The fish is turned over earlier than necessary.
Sticking can be avoided by remembering the following principles:
- The fish pieces are dried on all sides before frying.
- Place the fish only on a heated frying pan with hot, but not boiling, oil. The oil should cover the bottom of the pan.
- You only need to turn the fish when the flesh is 1.0 - 1.5 cm fried.
To prevent burning, the fish needs to create an outer protective layer. It is formed in 2 ways:
- breaded in flour;
- fry on parchment.
Frying with flour
Place 3-4 tablespoons of flour on a flat plate. Roll the dried fish pieces in flour in a thin layer on all sides. Then shake off the excess flour and place the fish in the boiling oil.
Attention! The fish should be placed in the frying pan in a “pull away” motion. This will prevent possible splashes of hot oil from getting on your skin.
At the beginning of frying, you can shake the pan slightly to ensure that the pieces do not stick to the bottom.
Flour-breaded fish has an appetizing crispy crust, which, in turn, protects the flesh from excessive drying.
Frying on parchment
Not everyone likes the color of fish fried with flour: it becomes whitish.
But gourmets are bothered by the taste of flour in fish. To avoid this, it is recommended to use parchment.
Place a piece of parchment equal in area to the bottom of the pan on the bottom of the heated frying pan. Grease it with vegetable oil. Once the oil is hot, place the fish pieces on the parchment.
Benefits of frying on parchment:
- the surface of the pan remains clean;
- there is no obsessive smell of fried fish;
- the fish does not burn or stick to the pan.
If you like fish with a crust, then you do not need to cover the pan with a lid during frying.
How long to fry pollock
Like most fish species, pollock does not like long-term heat treatment, as it loses all nutrients, becomes loose and takes on an unpresentable appearance. 2.1 how long to fry pollock in a frying pan
To properly cook pollock in a frying pan, just fry the carcass or pieces of fish for 5 minutes on each side. It will take 1-2 minutes to heat the pan over high heat. To obtain a pale crust, 4 minutes over medium heat will be enough. To obtain a beautiful golden blush, fry on each side for 7 minutes. A beautiful crust can be achieved if you turn on the burner for a maximum of half a minute immediately before removing from the heat.
If the carcasses are large enough, increase the frying time by a couple of minutes.
How long to fry pollock in flour
Pollock, like any other fish, cooks quite quickly. Frying the fish over medium heat will take about 10 minutes - 5 on each side.
How long to fry pollock fillet
The fillet is fried somewhat faster due to the absence of skin, which serves as a small barrier to heat treatment. Depending on the thickness of the pieces, cooking will take no more than 8 minutes in total.
How long to fry pollock in batter
Batter is a kind of shell that the cook creates so that the fish inside it sweats a little. You can get a crispy crust from the batter in 15 minutes - this time will be enough to fry pieces of fish on both sides.
How long to fry pollock
The average duration of frying pollock is about 5-6 minutes on each side. The entire process from the beginning of preparing the ingredients to the finished dish will take no more than 20 minutes.
Fried pollock is a quick and healthy dinner for the whole family. Supplemented, for example, with a vegetable side dish, it will become an indispensable dish on any table.
How to make fried pollock even tastier
Fish loves butter very much. At the end of frying, 2-3 minutes before cooking, you need to drain the vegetable oil from the frying pan and add 50 g of butter to it. The butter should heat until it begins to burn slightly and release a faint nutty aroma. The fish must be constantly turned over so that the flesh is saturated with creamy taste.
At the end of frying, add chopped herbs - parsley and dill - to the boiling oil. Then squeeze the juice of half a lemon so that it gets onto the fish and onto the oil in the frying pan.
Pollock recipe (step by step with potatoes)
Potatoes are the most popular addition to fish. This is another step-by-step recipe for pollock in the oven. The dish is convenient because you do not need to additionally prepare a side dish. Additionally, a little grated cheese is used on top, but this is an optional ingredient; you can prepare the dish without it.
Ingredients
- kilogram of pollock;
- 6-8 potatoes;
- 2 onions;
- 170 g sour cream or mayonnaise;
- oil, salt and pepper;
- 0.5 lemon;
- 60-70 g hard cheese.
Preparation
- You can simply combine fish with potatoes and mayonnaise, put it in a mold and bake. But this is not a very good option, since the potatoes take longer to cook, and the pollock will have time to dry out. It's better to do it a little differently. We clean the tubers and cut them into 3-4 millimeter slices.
- Boil a couple of liters of water. Salt well, add the prepared potatoes and boil for three minutes. Pour everything into a colander and let the plates cool.
- Cut the pollock into small pieces, about the size of a matchbox. Squeeze lemon juice onto it.
- Now take salt and pepper, sprinkle the pieces of fish.
- You can use sour cream or mayonnaise in this dish. In the second case it will be fatter. You can mix sour cream with mayonnaise. In general, we take any product and transfer it to the fish. Stir.
- We peel the onion; you can cook this dish without it. Cut into thin half rings and leave on the board for now.
- Grease a baking dish and spread the onion in a thin layer. You can use a piece of foil as a backing so you don’t have to wash the mold later.
- On top of the onions we lay overlapping pieces of potatoes, which by this time have already cooled down a little.
- There is no need to season the potatoes with spices, the seasonings dripping from the fish will be enough, but you need to lightly add salt to the vegetable.
- On top of the potatoes we place pieces of pollock, which have already been lightly marinated. Pour the remaining juice and fish sauce over the top and let it soak into the potatoes.
- Preheat the oven to two hundred degrees, place the pan with the fish for 25 minutes. During this time, the dish will almost be ready.
- Rub a piece of cheese with fine shavings so that it forms a thin crust and only slightly decorates the dish.
- Remove the pollock and potatoes from the oven, lightly sprinkle with cheese and bake for another 5-7 minutes, increase the temperature to 220 degrees.
Recipe 2: Caribbean Fish Sauce
You can say this is an express recipe, because... The sauce is ready in five minutes. Suitable not only for fish, but also shrimp and squid. Rum can be replaced with other strong alcoholic drinks - cognac, sherry, whiskey. To make the sauce less calorie, mayonnaise should be replaced with yogurt.
Ingredients : 100g mayonnaise, 1 table each. l. rum and ketchup, spices, salt, ½ orange.
Cooking method
Squeeze the juice out of half an orange; one and a half tablespoons is enough. Add mayonnaise, ketchup, rum to it. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. You can experiment a little, and if you have Tabasco sauce in the house, add a few drops.
Recipe 3: Sour cream sauce with garlic for fish
Another sauce that does not need to be cooked. It is very tasty and goes well with any fish, especially fried fish. It is better to take pickled or pickled cucumbers, because... you need natural sourness. As a last resort, you can cut the pickled cucumber.
Ingredients : 200 ml sour cream, 2 hard-boiled eggs, a clove of garlic, salt, pepper, pickled cucumber.
Cooking method
Chop the cucumber very finely or grate it. You can grate half a cucumber and chop the other half.
Grind the garlic and eggs: on a grater, finely chop with a knife or crush with a pestle. Mix everything with sour cream, salt and pepper.
Fish cutlets from pollock, fried in the oven
You can diversify your boring everyday menu with pollock cutlets.
Components:
- Fresh frozen pollock – 1.5 kg;
- Low-fat sour cream – 50 ml;
- White loaf – 1 piece;
- Cheese – 100 g;
- Salt, spices - to taste;
- Egg – 2 pcs.;
- Flour – 3 tbsp. l.;
- Homemade milk – 100 ml;
- Onion – 2 pcs.;
- Carrots – 1 pc.;
- Low-fat cream – 200 ml.
Defrost the fish, remove the backbone and bones. Cut into small portions.
Peel the onion and cut into large cubes. Place the loaf in a plate for the first one and fill it with milk. Grate the cheese.
We pass the semi-finished fish product and onions through a meat grinder. Place in a plastic bowl, add soaked bread, egg, grated cheese and flour.
Mix everything well, add salt and season with spices. With wet hands, form ball-shaped cutlets and place in a roasting pan.
We cut the carrots into longitudinal bars, pour them on top and fill everything with cream. Place in the oven preheated to 180°C for 50 minutes.
Bon appetit!
Juicy pollock fillet in batter
Pollock meat is very good fried in batter. When fried, the batter turns into a crispy crust and preserves the juiciness and tenderness of the fish.
Ingredients:
- 500 g fillet;
- 100 g flour;
- 2 eggs;
- 100 ml low-fat cream, milk or unflavored sparkling water;
- salt, spices.
Preparation:
- Rub the fillet with salt and spices and put it in a cooler place for about 30 minutes.
- Prepare the batter. First, beat the eggs until smooth (with a whisk, fluffy foam is not needed here). Add milk little by little, continuing to vigorously whisk the ingredients. Then gently mix in the flour. Mix the mixture thoroughly - there should be no lumps. When using sparkling water, the dough becomes more airy and tender. You can add fresh herbs and sautéed onions to the batter. There is only one condition: additional ingredients must be cut very finely.
- Dip the fillet into the dough and place it in a frying pan that has been standing on the fire for a while.
- Don't turn the fish over too often. Wait until the dough turns golden on one side and sets on the other before turning over. Fry over moderate heat without a lid, otherwise you won’t get a beautiful crust.
- Place the finished fish on a paper towel to absorb excess fat.
How to stew delicious pollock with carrots and onions in mayonnaise (sour cream) in a frying pan
The usual fried pollock can be made even tastier by preparing a delicious sauce. There is nothing complicated. This incredibly tender and spicy fish in sour cream sauce with vegetables is quick and easy to prepare!
Required Products:
- Fish (pollock or hake) – 800 gr.
- Sour cream 20% fat or mayonnaise – 300 gr.
- Fish seasoning – 1 tsp.
- Onion – 1 pc. (medium size)
- Carrots – 1 pc. (medium size)
- Olive oil – 1 tbsp. l.
- Spices to taste
Preparation.
Thaw the fish, rinse under water, gut it, remove the fins, tail and inner black film.
Cut into portions. Place the pieces in a deep bowl.
Now let's move on to marinating. Add olive oil to the bowl of pollock. This will help the spices develop better and impart flavor. Sprinkle with fish seasoning, ½ tsp. hot pepper, ground paprika, a little less ground pepper and salt. Mix everything well and leave to brew for 25 minutes.
At this time, you can do vegetables. Peel the onions and carrots. Cut the onion into half rings. Grate the carrots on a coarse grater.
Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the onions and carrots until golden brown, stirring occasionally. When a golden crust begins to appear, you need to add 100 ml of drinking water and a little salt.
Reduce heat to medium and you are ready to serve the pieces. For each of them you need to add sour cream.
Cover with a lid, reduce heat to low and leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes.
The fish is ready. It looks incredibly appetizing and can be served with potatoes and vegetables.
How to stew delicious pollock with carrots and onions in mayonnaise in a frying pan
Preparation
It is better to defrost fish indoors. To speed up the process, you can immerse the carcass in cold water. Before cooking, the fish is cleaned. The carcass should be placed on the cutting board in such a position that you can hold its tail with your left hand. During the cleaning process, you will have to hold the carcass in the tail area. The knife should slide against the scales, so each side of the pollock will be cleared of scales.
Sauces for fish - general principles and methods of preparation
The sauce added to the fish allows you to muffle the not very pleasant specific taste that is present in some types of fish, for example, cod, catfish, pike. Or, conversely, emphasize the noble taste of valuable species - salmon, sturgeon, trout.
The sauce is served with boiled, fried, baked fish, as well as appetizers, salads, and aspic. If the fish is fatty, it is better to choose sour sauces, which include cucumber pickle, wine or vinegar. They will help make the taste of the dish less cloying. Sauces containing butter, cream, and sour cream are suitable for lean types of fish.
Any sauce can be easily bought in the store. But cooked with your own hands, it will still be tastier, so you can treat yourself and your household to homemade delicacies.
The main component most often is fish broth, milk, sour cream or cream. Additional ingredients can be very diverse - horseradish, tomato paste, oil, vinegar, wine, eggs, mushrooms, roots.
If the composition includes garlic, herbs or spices, they are added in very small quantities so as not to interrupt the taste of the main dish. There are at least hundreds of fish sauces. We have presented recipes with the most affordable products and simple methods of cooking at home.
Recipe 4: Salsa for fish
You don't have to go to Mexico to try Mexican sauce. Prepare it at home. The missing products can be bought at the nearest supermarket around the corner. During the season, fresh strawberries are used; in winter, you can take frozen ones or replace the strawberries with kiwi or feijoa fruit.
Ingredients : 1 large tomato, a bunch of cilantro or parsley, 1 medium onion, 5 strawberries (replacement - 1 kiwi or feijoa), salt, balsamic vinegar - 1 teaspoon, pepper, vegetable oil (olive, sunflower) - 3 tablespoons .l.
Cooking method
Finely chop the greens. Remove the peel from the tomato (scald it with boiling water and remove the skin). Chop the tomato and strawberries into small cubes. Also chop the onion. If you use kiwi instead of strawberries, you can grate it. Mix the crushed ingredients with the rest of the recipe ingredients and let the sauce brew for about an hour.
Delicious fish breaded with sesame seeds
Sesame seeds are a source of calcium, and fish is a source of phosphorus. This tandem is very healthy and tasty. In addition, sesame gives pollock a light nutty flavor and makes the crust crispy.
Ingredients:
- 50 g sesame seeds;
- 3 medium pollock (or fillets);
- 2 eggs;
- vegetable oil;
- salt pepper.
Preparation:
- Rub the cut fish into pieces with a mixture of spices and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Then rinse to remove excess salt and pepper and pat dry with paper towel.
- Beat the eggs until light foam. You can add 1 tbsp to them. l. cold water or milk.
- Dip pollock pieces in egg, then roll in sesame seeds and place in a well-heated frying pan.
- In this case, you should fry the fish only on the lowest heat, otherwise the seeds will burn and the slices will not be completely cooked.
