New Orleans Fish Recipes

How to cook fish and stay healthy

By master chef, Andre

You may think these 2 words don't belong to each other or don't fit, but they can and do.

There is a way to eat the best fish in the country, which by the way is caught in Louisiana, without killing yourself. I found it because I had to; had a heart attack and had to develop a way to eat what I love without the medical problems of high cholesterol, deep fried foods and all the things that the medical field says are not good.

So after I was told that I was going to live, but better change up the ways that I eat I decided to spend some time and see what I could do to keep eating that great food of Louisiana (like Speckle Trout) but get rid of the bad stuff; deep frying, lots of butter, breads with butter just dripping down my arms. Damm, what a challenge, but I did it and now will share with you what and how you can do it.

My first thing was to read up a little on just what was bad and relate it to how I grew up and what I could do to make a small change that had a big impact, so I looked at the method of how we use to fry; deep frying in a big cast iron pot. What I found out was pretty interesting. You can get the same or better taste frying by first, cutting the pieces into thinner parts. In other words, take a piece of fish in this case that may be 3/4" thick and butterfly it (cutting it the log way along the fish, harder to do), now making the fish 1/2 that size, or 3/8" thick (in case you don't have a masters degree in math). The thinner the fish the quicker it cooks plus you don't get the oil into the fish.

The next thing I learned is that rather than deep frying you can use much less oil, only 1/4" thick. You better go get a measuring tape for this because it's not much, and you don't need much because you are going to turn the fish over and cook the other side. You save the expense of the oil you use, plus the fish does not pick up the oil into it as the old way.

The next thing I found is that if you use Peanut oil (cost more but goes a longer way so it works out to be the same or less cost) the oil can be hotter, which means that the fish will cook quicker and have less oil pickup on the fish.

I think you are getting the idea here and now, the fish when thinner cooks quicker and picks up less oil.

Now the real secret I found out about all this fish cooking in a healthier way; it's in the bread crumbs; I found a Japanese bread crumb some time back (before the chefs did on TV) called Panko, what a difference. I can now cook chicken that taste like fish or fish that taste like chicken, either way this stuff is great. Here's what I found out.

• 1. Cut your pieces of fish into thin strips.
• 2. Run under cold water just to wet a little and put aside
• 3. Take whatever seasonings you like, like lemon pepper, or Tony's, or Italian seasonings, or just salt and pepper, try different things, then put the seasonings on both sides and set aside.
• 4. Take the pieces and dredge into fish fry, a very thin batter.
• 5. Take the pieces and now dredge into an egg wash station, coating each side, then immediately place in the Panko bread crumbs and then into a plate.
• 6. After the oil is heated to medium high, about 370F, you want to have the oil hot, because the fish will only take a couple of minutes per side, and this varies according to look and taste. Once the Panko turns the brown color you want, time to turn the fish and do the other side.
• 7. When finished the fish should be taken out placed on a metal rack if you have one, then dosed with lemon juice, and you are ready to eat.

Try to eat while hot, the texture should be crunchy on the outside, with a color of brown to dark brown.

I know Frank knows how to cook fish, but this method takes you out of the old school of frying and moves you into the new era of cooking, without loosing any taste.

If you want a video on this please contact us and we will see if we can put this into something that your children can see and like,