Finessing White Fish
Like so many, I've worked to incorporate more fish into my family's diet, especially healthful white fish. That's easy to do when eating out and someone else is cooking. Yet, many home cooks — myself included — are sometimes frustrated with the results when cooking fish at home.
Often I'll buy a beautiful piece of lean white fish — a category including many species, all low calorie — only to create an unappetizing mess when I sauté it, leaving both top and bottom of the fish adhering to my nonstick griddle.
What, oh what, am I doing wrong?
To find out how best to cook white fish at home, I went to see avid fisherman and fish cooking guru Mitch Conniff, chef/owner of Mitch's Seafood, located on the Embarcadero in Point Loma, alongside the fishing docks. His laidback eatery goes through more than 1,000 pounds of white fish every week, most sourced from Catalina Offshore Products and local fishermen.
It turns out I've been cooking these delicate fish all wrong.