Hook, Line & Dinner - Recap

Alton starts the episode at the Tennessee Aquarium. Well, more precisely, IN the Tennessee Aquarium – he’s donned a wet suit and dropped into a big tank of fish. It’s to make a point: the world is about 70% water, and that water contains a lot of tasty things to eat. The average grocery store patron has over a hundred varieties of fish to choose from, and that doesn't’t count the things with shells or legs! Alton plans to plumb the depths of fish, maneuver the currents of the fish counter, and present three ways of cooking fish, all before his tank runs dry. With time left over to find out who that jeweled ring on the bottom of the tank belongs to…

Alton believes the first and most important task is to find a reliable source for fresh fish. According to Alton a shop should:

1. Not smell like fish. It shouldn’t smell like anything.
2. Be clean. Avoid a dirty shop.
3. Be busy. A busy shop has a lot of turnover, so what it sells is fresher.
4. Separate fish and shellfish.
5. Pack fish in clean ice that is well drained. Fish refrigerated on ice last twice as long as fish refrigerated without ice.
6. Keep fillets and steaks in trays on ice.
7. Label its products with useful information, such as water of origin.
8. Cut its fish on the premises. Maybe not the big game fish, but certainly the smaller ones.

Once you’ve found a store you like, Alton continues – get to know the folks behind the counter. Learn what quality fish looks like. Be flexible, because they might not always have exactly what you want. Fishing can be unpredictable. Finally, keep the fish cold: if you live more that a few miles away, take along a cooler and ice.

There is, Alton advices, no “Holy Grail” or “Secret Decoder Ring” for whole fish. He means there’s no one specific trait that guarantees freshness or the lack of it. The wise buyer must consider the whole package. If you pick a good vendor and get to know the people there, that’s most of the battle, for they will help.

Alton selects a whole striped bass. Whole fish require less processing and are often more economical. Striped bass, with a medium fat flesh and simple skeleton, is easy to cook and easy to carve. Alton cooks his in a salt dome.

The salt dome starts with a lot of kosher salt – a pound for every pound of fish. Not to worry, the fish won’t be salty. Alton mixes his kosher salt with egg whites and just a little water to form a kind of mortar. He puts a layer of that on a half-sheet pan and lays the fist atop it. Inside the fish, he puts aromatics like fennel, orange slices, lemon slices, and parsley. Then he clumps the salt around the fish and puts more salt over it. He covers the fish completely, cautioning that while striped bass is pretty tough, the careful cook won’t push down on it too hard. Alton works from the head towards the tail. When the fish is covered he slides the pan into a 450º oven for about 40 minutes. That brings the fish to a temperature of just over 130º. Carryover will take it the rest of the way while it rests for ten minutes.

When the fish has rested Alton taps the salt dome with a small hammer – think archeology, not carpentry. The dome comes off in a few pieces leaving a little dust. Alton handles that with a small brush. Then he slips a pie server between the skin and flesh at the tail with the serrated side pointing toward the head and slices towards the head, lifting away the skin. To remove the meat he again starts at the back and goes along the rib line; the meat should separate cleanly. With a twist of the tail, Alton frees the skeleton in one piece, granting access to the bottom fillets.

At Harry’s Farmers Market, Alton talks about fillets and steaks. A fillet is a side removed from a fish, or a portion of that side. If the grain of the meat is parallel to the surface on which it rests, it’s a fillet. Small whole fillets from fish such as bream, hake, catfish, flounder and trout are perfect for pan frying. Alton chooses a trout.

At a camp site, Alton starts with his biggest pan over high heat. He salts the fillet lightly and dusts it with a bit of pepper. Then he barely dredges it in flour and shakes off as much excess as he can. Turning to the pan, he adds a bit of canola oil – with a high smoke point, this oil is well suited to high heat cooking. He adds a little butter next. Butter contributes flavor and browning, but it has a very low smoke point and would not work well by itself. When the fats are melted Alton swirls the pan to distribute them and lays the fish down away from his face. This safety precaution can prevent spatter burns. After the fish is in the pan, Alton slides the pan around for about ten seconds. That’s long enough to form a crust on the fish that will discourage sticking.

After about four minutes, Alton turns the fish over, again laying it down away from him. He looked for the muscles to start separating; that tells him the fish is done. He adds a little more butter to the pan and fries some capers. When they’re toasted, he removes the man from the heat and adds lemon juice. Lemon juice contains a lot of water and it will steam. That steam will carry fat away from the pan. Removing the pan from the heat first reduces the amount of steam and the hazard. This sauce goes over the fish with (if you like) a parsley garnish.

Back from camping, Alton selects a salmon steak for his next dish. A steak is a cut of fish in which the grain of the meat is perpendicular to the surface on which it rests. They’re cross-sections cut from larger, rounder fish. Steaks work well on the grill, and that’s how Alton prepares his.

He starts by pulling all the pin bones. These tiny bones run parallel to the grain of the meat and can be hard to find, but they are worth removing. With the pin bones out Alton cuts about an inch from the belly flap on one side, then tucks that into the center and folds the belly flap from the other side around it. It’s folded correctly when it looks round. A double layer of butcher’s twine keeps the steak in the proper shape.

Next Alton prepares his grill by cleaning it (a pumice stone works well) and wiping it with canola oil. Alton checks for a medium hot fire (ow!) by testing how long he can hold his hand over the grill. A few seconds should be the limit.

The grill ready, Alton turns to spices. He selects cumin seed, coriander, fennel seed and green peppercorns, lays them on foil and toasts them over the grill until he smells herbs. Then he coats the steaks with canola oil and dusts them with a pinch of sea salt (kosher also works). Finally, he completes preparing the fillets by grinding his toasted herb mixture onto them (a spare pepper grinder works well).

Key to good steak grilling is to leave the steaks alone. If your grill starts clean the steaks develop a proper crust and eventually “let go” of the grill. What’s the actual cooking time? Alton doesn’t know – he cooks them “until their done” (just as the Mad French Chef advises). Medium rare (a good choice for salmon) is just flaky and translucent in the center. If the steaks are raw inside buy crusty outside, move them to the outside of the grill and put the lid on to bake them. When they’re done, snip the butcher’s twine and remove it. Usually the skin comes off with the twine. Aldo serves his with a side salad.
Serve with side salad.

Back at the aquarium Alton summarizes: dry cooking methods bring out the flavors best. Buy fresh fish, handle them properly, season them thoroughly and cook them simply and you will have… Good Eats

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