by NINAD JOG
Have you ever marinated fish fillet in plain water?
That's what I ended up doing today, although I didn't mean to. All I wanted to do was defrost the frozen cod fillet -- bought from Trader Joe's, no less -- by dunking it in hot water for ten to fifteen minutes. When I put it into hot water, secure inside the flimsy plastic bag in which it had been sitting, it looked like the plastic would melt any minute, as if it were my heart.
Not wanting to taste fish that was melded, welded, and garnished with molten plastic, I took the fillet out of the bag and dunked it into the pot containing hot water by itself.
When I took it out after a quarter of an hour and held it over the kitchen sink, the water started draining out of it. It drained and drained and drained, showing no sign of stopping. I had no idea fish could absorb so much water! But then again, this was a creature from the sea :-) (Hindsight is 20/20.)
It wasn't long before I lost patience and stuck it into the oven that I had preheated to 400 deg F. And there I let it sit for a good twenty minutes.
At the end of said twenty minutes, the fillet was suppurating (I meant to say bubbling, but I couldn't resist using a fancy word) so copiously, so unashamedly with fat and who knows what other secretions that had oozed from it! I garnished it with a mixture of six finely grated cheeses and some fish curry masala, and my roommate and I smacked our lips as we devoured it.
It was such a welcome contrast to the baked cod fillet I had last week, which I had defrosted in the microwave. After baking it in the oven for twenty minutes, it had tasted so insipid, so bereft of life, so dry -- as if it had just woken up from a long nap in the Sahara desert. Everyone gets their just deserts, I suppose.
I for one wouldn't mind marinating a frozen fillet in plain water again, although I imagine one marinated in a somewhat less plain marinade would taste a notch better.
When a fish lands in hot water, taking the water out of the fish can make you feel like a fish out of water.
Vive la aqueous marinade! Pardon my French.
Have you ever marinated fish fillet in plain water?
That's what I ended up doing today, although I didn't mean to. All I wanted to do was defrost the frozen cod fillet -- bought from Trader Joe's, no less -- by dunking it in hot water for ten to fifteen minutes. When I put it into hot water, secure inside the flimsy plastic bag in which it had been sitting, it looked like the plastic would melt any minute, as if it were my heart.
Not wanting to taste fish that was melded, welded, and garnished with molten plastic, I took the fillet out of the bag and dunked it into the pot containing hot water by itself.
When I took it out after a quarter of an hour and held it over the kitchen sink, the water started draining out of it. It drained and drained and drained, showing no sign of stopping. I had no idea fish could absorb so much water! But then again, this was a creature from the sea :-) (Hindsight is 20/20.)
It wasn't long before I lost patience and stuck it into the oven that I had preheated to 400 deg F. And there I let it sit for a good twenty minutes.
At the end of said twenty minutes, the fillet was suppurating (I meant to say bubbling, but I couldn't resist using a fancy word) so copiously, so unashamedly with fat and who knows what other secretions that had oozed from it! I garnished it with a mixture of six finely grated cheeses and some fish curry masala, and my roommate and I smacked our lips as we devoured it.
It was such a welcome contrast to the baked cod fillet I had last week, which I had defrosted in the microwave. After baking it in the oven for twenty minutes, it had tasted so insipid, so bereft of life, so dry -- as if it had just woken up from a long nap in the Sahara desert. Everyone gets their just deserts, I suppose.
I for one wouldn't mind marinating a frozen fillet in plain water again, although I imagine one marinated in a somewhat less plain marinade would taste a notch better.
When a fish lands in hot water, taking the water out of the fish can make you feel like a fish out of water.
Vive la aqueous marinade! Pardon my French.
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