Crispy Skin Fish

It’s so easy once you get the hang of it.

have your fish descaled if needed.
cut your fish into uniform pieces.
salt your fish early in day or the night before. Start by salting the flesh side of the fish lightly. Then turn over and salt the skin side more heavily.
put on rack in refrigerator skin side up.
An hour before cooking, take fish out of the refrigerator.
heat your pan medium high heat. Add your fat (either clarified butter or canola oil) and heat to the point right before or at the smoking. Add fish skin side down. Make sure you hear the sizzle sound. if you don’t, wait a bit longer. Do not over crowd the pan.
press down the center of the fish with a spatula to ensure the center of the skin also gets crispy.
cook approximately 3 minutes, checking after two minutes to see how it is looking. During this time, arroser (baste) the fish by tilting the pan and spooning the fat from the bottom of the pan over the fish. Do this a few times until you see the color change on the flesh side of the fish. This will start the cooking process on the flesh side.
once you are happy with the crispiness, turn the fish over, turn off the heat and move pan off of the hot burner. Do NOT cover the pan.
let the fish rest in the hot pan for 5 to 7 minutes depending on size and thickness of fish. If you feel like the fish is overcooking, take the fish out of the pan and let it rest on a plate.
garnish the top with dry herbs and lemon zest. If you want the skin to be crispy, do not put a sauce on top of the fish, but under the fish.

apologies for the shaky camera. I didn’t have any assistance when I made this video but wanted to show you up-close the method.

aioli Recipe

My ingredients list has approximate amounts. Each step you can try and see if you want more oil, more lemon juice, more salt, etc.

bring the egg to room temperature and separate the yolk from the white.
make a paste with one or two garlic cloves and salt. You can either use a knife by chopping, salting, chop more, then press down on the garlic with the side of the knife and rock it back and forth.
- or you can use a mortar and pestle to make a paste.
in medium size bowl, add garlic paste, 1 or more teaspoons of dijon mustard, the egg yolk and whisk together until totally combined.
have a damp towel to go around the bowl to keep it in place.
slowly add a drop of olive oil while whisking, and another few drops while whisking… do this a few times until it is combined. Then start a slow stream of the oil in the bowl while continuously whisking. Your stream of oil can start to become thicker or faster once the binding has started. Keep taking a break of adding the oil and whisk to make sure it isn’t separating. Then whisk in more until you like the taste. The amount of oil is up to you, and the flavor of the oil is up to you. Taste along the way.
whisk in 1/4 to 1/2 of a the juice of a fresh lemon and more salt if needed.
finish with whisking in a teaspoon or two of warm water for consistency.

This is a very luscious sauce !

in saucepan, heat olive oil and shallots until shallots are translucent.
add the white wine vinegar, capers and lemon zest and cook down until almost evaporated. keep a close eye on it.
add wine. Simmer until almost a syrup consistency, 10 minutes or so.
turn burner to lowest setting (low simmer). If you don’t have a low simmer, turn off. Start whisking one cube of butter in at a time. Continue whisking and continue adding butter until it’s a nice consistency. Taste for acidy and fat balance. If too acidic, add more butter.
add salt for taste.
strain for a beautiful silky texture, or leave with shallots and capers in sauce.

Fish Fillets:

I’m leaving it up to you on purchasing your favorite fish fillets that have skin. Local fish like salmon, steal head, black cod or halibut are good choices. You could also choose turbot, arctic char, or what looks good at the fish counter.
If you choose a salmon or trout family fish, it needs to be scaled (or de-scaled). You can ask your fish monger to do that, but generally you would need to purchase the entire fillet for them to do that. Halibut and black cod have very small scales and could forgo descaling. I personally descale the halibut as well.
You may also ask your fish monger to remove the pin bones.
You’ll need a hot oil… clarified butter or canola oil. But for those of you who came to my crisply skin fish dinners, I used clarified butter.

Aioli ingredients:

Lemon Caper Sauce ingredients:

Descale your fish (if not already done)

Descaling fish is a messy task. It’s best to place fish on parchment paper close to the sink. It’s easier to do this when the fish is dry, so do this before you clean the fish. You may need to hold the tail side of the fish with a paper towel to have a better grip. Take the back side of a think knife (or use a dull knife) and scape from the tail side to the head side. Repeat until you feel like all of he scales are removed. Don’t worry if you miss a few, they won’t kill you :) then rince very well under running water and with your hand make sure you get all of the loose scales off. It’s important to have a good strainer in your sink because they can clog up your sink.

Remove pin bones

To remove pin bones in the salmon family, simply use fish tweezers, or something similar in your tool box. Feel along the center of the flesh of the fish and identify which direction the bones are in the fish. With the tweezers pull the bones out in the same direction to create the least disturbance to the flesh. If you choose not to do this, then you simply pull them out after the fish is cooked. If you purchase black cod, use a very sharp knife and cut the center flesh bones out (see photo below). Otherwise you will butcher the flesh of the fish.

Cut your fillets into individual portions.

Salt your fish

Do this early in the day with Kosher salt, either first thing in the morning or at least three to five hours before cooking. You want the skin to be dry when you cook it. Salt the flesh side of the fish normally, then turn over and salt the skin side more than you would normally. Place skin side up on a drying rack in your refrigerator.

black cod pin-bones are easier to cut out

salt lighting the flesh of the skin

salt the skin side more heavily then refrigerate

Take your fish and egg for aioli out of the refrigerator one hour before the class.

Zest one lemon and juice 1/2 of small lemon

Mince one shallot

Cut your butter into tablespoon pieces, but keep cold.