How long to cook frozen fish

Useful tips

There are many secrets on how to properly cook different types of fish. They will help make a dish with this product more tasty and attractive. Things to remember when cooking fish:

• boiling is an ideal cooking method for sterlet, burbot, ruff and trout;
• river fish of the carp family - gudgeon, rudd, bream, crucian carp and others - are recommended to be boiled for at least 15-20 minutes, only then will it become safe for consumption;
• raw fish cannot be salted long before boiling, this will worsen its taste;
• Small fish are boiled whole, large ones are cut into pieces. For 1 kg of product you need to take 2 liters of liquid. The less water, the tastier the fish will be;
• It is customary to cook catfish and sturgeon fish in large pieces. It is better to cut it before serving;
• fish cannot be overcooked, otherwise it will become tasteless and tough;
• if the fish needs to be boiled whole, it should be immersed in warm water and cooked over low heat; chopped or small fish should be placed in boiling water;
• the broth and fish will acquire a beautiful color if you add onion skins or saffron to the water;
• fish with a pleasant smell and delicate taste should not be cooked with a large number of different spices. In this case, only white roots and onions are usually added. If you need to remove a specific aroma, you will need carrots, onions, bay leaves and peppers: they are placed in the pan before the water boils. Cucumber pickle will also help remove the unpleasant odor;
• To ensure that boiled fish remains juicy, before serving it is stored in hot broth (up to 30 minutes);
• fish broth should be salted to a minimum if you plan to use it for appetizers, sauces, aspic, etc.

Storing fish dishes

We will separately consider the rules for storing dishes prepared from fish. It could be:

• boiled, baked, fried fish;
• fish steaks, cutlets, sticks;
• salads, soups, baked goods with fish.

NOTE! The recommendations apply to dishes prepared at home. Semi-finished products and ready-made dishes from meat, fish, potatoes and other ingredients purchased in stores and public catering establishments are labeled with storage conditions and expiration dates. They must be adhered to.

In the freezer

Semi-finished fish dishes, such as homemade dumplings, minced meat, raw cutlets, and meatballs, are placed in the freezer. You should not keep them frozen for too long: no more than one month. The exact period depends on the temperature in the chamber: the lower it is, the longer the product is stored.

Such a short period is due to the fact that self-prepared semi-finished products differ from purchased ones. They do not contain preservative additives, which are added during production to increase shelf life. Defrosting and re-freezing of products is not recommended.

In the refrigerator compartment

Freshly prepared fish dishes are stored in the refrigerator after cooling. The timing depends on the type of dish:

The temperature in the chamber should be within +4 – +6 degrees. Any food that has been sitting for more than two days should no longer be eaten.

IMPORTANT! If the prepared food cannot be placed in the refrigerator, it is advisable to eat it immediately. The maximum time during which it can be stored at room temperature is several hours: 5-6 in cool times, 1-3 in hot periods of the year.

Proper storage of prepared meals includes sealing their packaging. For example, if open fried fish is stored in the refrigerator, it will spread its smell and other foods will be saturated with it. Use frying pans or pots with lids and tightly sealed containers.

Do not neglect the recommended shelf life of products. Eating stale fish and fish dishes can cause great harm to health, causing food poisoning. It must be remembered that the lower the temperature in the refrigerator or freezer, the longer the product will be stored. Low-fat varieties last longer than fatty ones. Fish is a strong-smelling product and must be packaged carefully.

Video: preparations for the winter, how to properly freeze fish, mushrooms, berries

Simple recipes for dishes with boiled fish

Boiled fish can be consumed as a complete dish. But if you are bored with the standard cooking option, you can try to make something original from this product.

Hake with Polish sauce

This dish requires products such as hake (800 g), one onion, bay leaf, peppercorns (3 pcs.), spices, salt, butter (100 g), eggs (3 pcs.), half a lemon and herbs parsley

1. Fill a saucepan with water, add whole peeled onions, spices and salt. Boil.
2. Peel, rinse and cut the hake into portions.
3. Place fish in boiling water and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Melt the butter.
5. Hard boil the eggs and cool. Peel and finely chop.
6. Squeeze the juice from half a lemon.
7. Finely chop the parsley.
8. Mix melted butter, eggs, lemon juice and parsley. Add salt and spices.
9. Heat the resulting sauce.
10. Remove the boiled hake from the water, place on a plate, and pour over the prepared sauce.

Sea eel

This recipe requires stocking up on such products as 600 eels, 3 yolks, onions, 2 tbsp. spoons of flour, a glass of fish broth, a glass of white wine, 60 g butter, 0.5 tbsp. cream and 1 teaspoon of chopped parsley.

1. Remove the skin from the eel, cut it into 7-8 cm pieces.
2. Boil water, put fish, finely chopped onion, wine, fish broth in a pan. Cover with a lid and cook until done.
3. In a separate heat-resistant bowl, melt the butter, add flour to it and lightly fry. Then dilute with the broth in which the fish was cooked. Boil for 7 minutes.
4. Add cream and yolks, parsley to the finished sauce.
5. Place the eel on a plate and pour the sauce over it.

Gourmet cod

To prepare cod in this way you will need 2 eggs, fresh cucumber, 8 tomatoes, 500 g fish fillet, 150 g fresh mushrooms, lemon, 0.5 jars of mayonnaise, black pepper and salt.

1. Boil the fish fillet. Cool and cut into cubes.
2. Boil the mushrooms.
3. Cut the cucumber and mushrooms into small cubes.
4. Boil eggs hard and chop finely.
5. Cut off the tops of the tomatoes and remove the core. Remove juice and grains from the cores and cut them into small pieces.
6. Mix chopped tomato cores, mushrooms, fish, cucumbers and eggs. Add salt and pepper.
7. Stuff the tomatoes with the resulting mixture. Squeeze a little lemon juice on top and pour mayonnaise on top.
8. Leave for 4-6 hours - the mushrooms should be completely saturated with juice.

Boiled head and tail

Experts say that the decoction from the head and tail of the fish is an excellent basis for fish soup. Fish soup made from these parts with the addition of vegetables and rice is nutritious, healthy and very tasty. It is prepared simply and quickly. For any housewife, this is an important advantage.

The main ingredients for fish soup for four people are:

• one pink salmon (a little more than a kilogram);
• three pieces of potatoes;
• carrot
• onion
• bay leaf, dill, salt, pepper, allspice to taste.

1. First you need to choose the right fish. Fresh pink salmon has intact, smooth skin that is free of damage. The eyes should be clear and there should be no unpleasant odor.
2. To prepare the broth, the head and tail are washed well. Then they are laid out in a pan and filled with cold water (no more than two liters). When boiling, the foam must be removed from the surface.
3. Vegetables are washed and peeled. Onions and carrots are chopped. Added to the soup after the foam has been skimmed off. It is important when the broth is cooked over low heat. Then the peeled and chopped potatoes are added to the fish soup.
4. For soup, you can use steamed rice from the head and tail of pink salmon. Rinse it well and add it to the broth after the potatoes. A few minutes before it is ready, add bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste, and chopped dill.

Ingredients:

1. Water – 4 l.
2. Potatoes – 5 pcs.
3. One carrot, one onion.
4. Bay leaf.
5. Half a glass of rice.
6. Salt and pepper to taste.

Calorie content per hundred grams – 168 Kcal, BJU – respectively 24.41 g, 8.58 g, 22.38 g.

After cooking, the fish soup should be infused. This will take about ten minutes.

A dish of boiled pink salmon head and tail is good to prepare both in winter and summer. It can be served hot or cold. The fillet can be marinated with salt and spices and then baked in the oven.

How and for how long should you cook fish until done?

Fish can not only be stewed, fried, steamed or baked, but also boiled. Those who know how long to cook fish have the opportunity to prepare a dish that is unusual in texture, aroma and taste. The main thing is to strictly follow the recommended holding times, and not try to determine the degree of readiness of the product by eye. For most types of product 25-30 minutes to reach the optimal state. But there are also extremes, so you shouldn’t be surprised by figures of 5 minutes or 2 hours.

Basic recommendations for boiling fish

It doesn’t matter whether you need to boil pink salmon or bream, you should always follow the basic rules for working with the component. Only in this case can you count on the fact that in the end everything will turn out tasty and healthy.

• It is better not to salt the workpiece and water until the product is ready. Otherwise, the meat will turn out a little dry.
• It is recommended to cook both river and sea fish in a pan without a lid, so you should not use a slow cooker or double boiler to prepare this product.

Tip: Before cooking fish the traditional way, you should consider cooking it in vegetable broth. With this approach, even ordinary bream can be turned into an exquisite delicacy. And if you use saffron in the process of preparing the broth, the finished dish will have an amazing color and subtle aroma.

• The water should not be allowed to boil or bubble strongly, as this can lead to deterioration in the texture of the meat and even destruction of pieces or the carcass.
• Small fish are usually cooked whole, while large ones are cut into pieces. If this is not done, the component will not be welded evenly.
• To save time and make the meat juicy, pieces of fish are placed in boiling water. You can’t do this with small carcasses; temperature changes can cause the skin to burst.
• To boil the product tasty, you need to take a minimum amount of water. An abundance of liquid can greatly deteriorate the quality of the component, especially if you need to boil red fish.
• If within a few minutes after the start of cooking the broth becomes cloudy, the product must be removed and the liquid drained. Re-place the component in fresh boiling water and continue processing.

It is necessary to take special care when boiling representatives of the sturgeon and catfish families. It is better to cut them into large pieces and use a minimum amount of seasonings and spices.

Duration of boiling fish depending on the type

Each type of fish, as in the case of meat, requires an individual approach. If bream and sturgeon are cooked for equal periods of time, one of the products, and perhaps both, will be hopelessly spoiled. It is better to follow the recommendations of experts on how to properly cook fish, and not do questionable experiments with it:

• Smelt. It should be cooked for no more than 5 minutes. By over-resting the component, there is a risk of getting very tough meat.
• Pollock, mackerel, capelin and catfish reach the desired state in 8-12 minutes.
• To boil pink salmon (and other red fish with a similar texture), trout or pike perch, you will have to spend up to a quarter of an hour.
• Cod, herring, sterlet and flounder are cooked until cooked within 15-20 minutes. Bream and freshwater pike are processed a little longer.
• Hake and salmon are boiled for at least 25-30 minutes. Carp, cut into small pieces, is cooked for the same amount. But a whole carp will cook for about 45 minutes.
• Sturgeon takes the longest to cook. Even cut into portioned pieces, it will be ready within 1-2 hours, depending on the size of the pieces.

To determine whether the product is ready, you need to try to separate its fins from the carcass. If they come off easily, the component has reached the desired state.

The nuances of boiling fish

Of course, when boiling bream, mackerel or some delicious type of fish, there are specific features and recommendations, but there are general nuances for preparing a boiled product:

• Products with a delicate, unexpressed taste are not recommended to be richly flavored with seasonings and spices. It is enough to put white roots (parsley, celery) into the broth and add salt to the finished dish.
• But bream, carp or silver carp should be seasoned with pepper, bay leaf, carrots and onions. The already rich taste of meat will become more spicy and pronounced.

• Fish that initially has an unpleasant odor can be saved with cucumber brine. Just add a little liquid to the broth during the cooking process.
• If for some reason the finished product does not need to be served yet, it can be left in the broth, however, no more than half an hour.

The broth remaining after cooking the products can be strained several times until transparent, frozen and later used in making sauces. Just before pouring it into molds, you should add a little salt to the liquid.

Seasonings for cooking fish

If you are cooking fish that has a delicate, unsaturated taste, then use a minimum of seasonings. It is best to use only salt and white roots. Cook fish that has a rich taste, such as carp, silver carp, with the addition of bay leaves, carrots, and onions. Add some pepper. The fish will be spicy and tasty. If the fish has an unpleasant odor, then cucumber pickle will help neutralize it. Add it to the broth when cooking and you will improve the taste of the dish.

Cooked fish can wait about 30 minutes before serving in the broth. But you shouldn't keep it there longer. If you want to save the fish until the next meal, then add a little broth to the container where it will be stored (maybe in the same pan in which it was cooked). It will remain juicy.

If you use broth to make sauces, add as little salt as possible. The broth will become transparent if it is passed through several layers of damp gauze several times. Whipped egg white will help make it lighter. Steaming fish will make it even more tasty and healthy. A small amount of cucumber brine will improve the taste of the fish.

For health reasons or in an effort to lose weight, boiled fish will be an opportunity to diversify the menu. The types of fish usually cooked are halibut, cod, flounder, pike perch, trout, salmon, carp, hake, etc. Properly cooked fish retains its beneficial substances and has an excellent taste.

How long does it take to cook fish for soup?

Table 1. Cooking time for fish soup