Peas & Pachetta Bed 12 oz frozen peas 4 oz chopped pancetta 4 tblsp Creme…
Filleting Fish
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| Today I filleted a fish for the first time. Up to now I have always purchased fillets, but my local supermarket has been receiving daily shipments of fresh Rainbow Trout. Filleting is a skill I need to learn, and no better time than the present. | |
| Mark Bittman’s How to Cook everything contains an excellent description of how to fillet a fish and I read it several times. Next, in proper tool junkie fashion, I needed to arm myself with the right tool. Off to my favorite gourmet cooking tools store here in Glendale, AZ. I returned with a Messermeister Meridian Elite 6-inch flexible Boning Knife. Oh My. This baby has a nice feel and balance to it. |  |
| Approaching the task with all the seriousness of a test pilot on the first flight of an aircraft, or a soldier preparing for battle, I collected my wares. You can see the fresh whole trout here. It has been gutted, cleaned, and the gills removed. |  |
| I made an incision down the length of the trout’s spine just to one side of the top fin. I expected to find the backbone very near the skin surface but instead found there was almost 3/4 inch of flesh between the top of the backbone and the trout’s skin. |  |
| Next I made a deep cut vertically just behind where the gils would be, from the top of the fish to the bottom. |  |
| Finally, I deepened the original cut, carefully slicing through the flesh and just clearing the rib cage. At the same time I used my left hand to lift the fillet free (That’s why there is no photo of this step). | |
| As you can see, the first fillet (the upper fillet) turned out better than the second. Not knowing what to look for, I could not see the rib cage clearly and I thought that perhaps I was leaving some meat on the rib cage and so I was doing more poking and jabbing with my knife than I was slicing. Later examination of the carcass showed that I was in fact neatly clearing the trout’s rib cage and I should not have worried. Both fillets came out with very few pin bones, which I removed with needle-nose pliers.This trout cost me all of about $7.50 and from it, I got two nice meal-sized fillets – one for me and one for my wife. And since filleting it turned out to be a no-brainer, I’ll have no fear of buying whole fish from now on. |  |
| Now, you may ask, “Why not just prepare and serve it whole?” Very simple: SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) long ago said, “Just don’t serve me anything that is looking at me!” Enough said?Tags: Filleting a Fish | |
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