recipes:
The Basics
The Basics: How to Sauté Fish with Lemon and Capers
Easy and healthy
From the store to the kitchen to the table: We outline the steps that get you from raw ingredients to your dinner tonight, free of measurements and complicated techniques. It’s a method you’ll remember and whip out whenever you like. It is the most basic way to make the thing you’re making.
- WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- - a frying pan
- - a spatula
- - olive oil
- - two thin, boneless, skinless fillets of firm white fish (e.g., tilapia, sole, cod, rockfish, snapper)
- - salt and pepper
- - dry vermouth
- - the juice of half a lemon
- - a heaping spoonful of capers
- - one pat of butter
WHAT YOU’LL DO:
PRINT PDF1. Rub oil on both sides of the fillets, then season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the frying pan over medium heat for about four minutes. Once it’s almost smoking, add the fish.
3. Cook without touching the fillets for about three minutes, or until the edges are turning white and the fillets are a little brown on the bottom. Flip and cook the other side for about two minutes. Remove the fish from the pan.
4. Cover the bottom of the pan with a couple of glugs of vermouth. Add the lemon juice and capers. Mix with the spatula, lightly scraping up any bits that might have stuck to the pan.
5. Turn off the heat, swirl in the butter, and season with salt and pepper.
6. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve.
Illustrations by Bill Russell
Excellent
Step 2 refers to oil in the pan, but does not say when to add nor how much.
I don't think "swirling" the butter in would be enough - I always take a whisk to it.
H2 - just enough oil to cook the fish (How big is your pan?). You need to understand some basic cooking techniques, then you won't continue to blindly follow a recipe.
Sillygirl, a swirl will do just fine... the wine and capers should have released easily the fond from the pan. The butter is just there to lightly bind the pan sauce that forms.
This is a very basic recipe I have done a zillion times... add some lemon juice and zest and you have a simple picatta sauce. Even better
Thanks, JR.
Mine must have been a stupid question, because I am far beyond "understanding basic cooking techniques." And I do not follow recipes blindly, though I do think they should be clear.
Not everyone is an expert cook. Some may be making something like this for the first time and of course would not know the correct amount of oil, etc.. Experienced cooks also appreciate knowing the exact amounts required. There is no law that we have to follow a recipe exactly, but it is nice to have something to start with.
Sorry for the duplicate post.
I do have a question about the capers - a heaping tablespoon or a heaping teaspoon? That would make a lot of difference. I'm making it tonight and I will start with a teaspoon.
This recipe is poorly written - I would expect more from CHOW - and I am an experienced cook.
Ok, for sticklers of information you must have overlooked the description at the top of the page: "free of measurements and complicated techniques".
The idea here is to give you the basic technique so you can figure it out on your own. It's exhausting to depend on recipes for everything.
Use your imagination, preferences and common sense, it's much more fun and then maybe you'll have lucky accidents every now and then and before you know it you'll be writing your own recipes and sending them to your friends:)
h2Bn, thanks for noticing the discrepancy in step 2. We've updated the instructions, but to clarify, it's the pan that should be almost smoking. No oil should be added to the pan because you've already oiled the fish.
Deborah from CHOW
You're welcome, DeborahL. And thank you for the clarification.
IMHO, all sides get entirely too wound up on these posts. Chill, my friends.
A recipe is only a guide for your imagination.