Fish on the bone

(EmmaG) said:

Apparently fish cooked on the bone is far tastier, even if it looks
horrible on my plate and I leave far more of it for fear of digging
out a bit that I'm not supposed to.
So my question is can you cook it on the bone and then take off the
fillet once cooked without just flaking it off and if so which species
is best, something firm like monk ?

The easiest to fillet after cooking are not readily available
everywhere, unfortunately. The prototype is Dover Sole, which has a
simple heavy-boned flat skeleton. Any waiter with even limited
experience can fillet it in front of you at table. By the same token
it is easy to eat without the waiter's help.

Folks who live in the Bay area can enjoy a local miracle, the Sand
Dab, endemic to Monterey Bay. It has a similar structure to the Dover
Sole and is easy to eat served whole, the only proper way. Yummy! And,
last I heard, it is not endangered, so eat without guilt. 4 makes a
nice serving.

In the East, the grey sole can be eaten whole, although its skeleton
is not quite as heavy as the above. Vladimir Hrowitz was said to eat
11 of them before a recital. They do slide down very easily, but not
that easily for a non-pianist.

Once you get used to it, fish with much more delicate bones are less
frightening. Flounder, fluke, weakfish, striper, petrale in the West.

The most difficult is the herring family, which has tiny forked bones.
Shad, a large herring, is usually filleted and boned (by a highly paid
pro) before you get it. Smaller herring are usually pickeled, which
must dissolve the bones. They are delicious fresh, but hard to eat.

I think the "green herring" served as raw fillets in Holland must be
filleted in a way that discards large parts of the fish. I don't know
the process, but you get tail-end fillets, each with half the tail
atached as a handle. If anyone knows more about how they do this, I
would like to read about it.

Rodney Myrvaagnes J36 Gjo/a

MOM CASTS TOT IN CEMENT

Most experts voice cautious optimism

Rodney Myrvaagnes said:

On 29 Jan 2005 04:08:53 -0800, [email hidden] (EmmaG) wrote:
The most difficult is the herring family, which has tiny forked bones.
Shad, a large herring, is usually filleted and boned (by a highly paid
pro) before you get it. Smaller herring are usually pickeled, which
must dissolve the bones. They are delicious fresh, but hard to eat.

In Finland, where the fish of the herring family are plentiful, we have a
dish that usually throws off non-scandinavians; Herring steaks.

What you do is you sauté some finely chopped onions/challots and some
equally finely chopped (Talking 1/10 inch cubes here) bell
peppers/peppers/mushroom (Depending on your preference).

Take fillets of baltic herring (Gut the fish, cut off head and tail, and
spread. Do not separate the sides. The back bone is easy enough to take
out using scissors). Lay them down with the skin down, and season them
with just a little bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Put a
teaspoon or two of the sautéd mixture on every second one. Take the empty
fillets, and make like sandwiches.

Prepare a mixture of rye flour, salt, and freshly ground black pepper.
Take the sandwiches, and gently apply the micture to both sides. Cook on a
frying pan, with lots of butter (No self-respecting scandinavian uses
anything but butter here. No i-cant-believe-its-not-butter-lite here).
Both sides should be nice golden brown and relatively crispy.

Serve with mashed potatoes and gently mashed lingonberries. Be careful.
These things are addictive, and you can easily chow down 10 steaks when
you're not even starving!

-k