Better tasting fillets

Most of us skin our fish as a part of the filleting process. If you’re not into eating whole fish, then scaling fish is a messy and unnecessary process, isn’t it? Well, no. The fact is most fish taste better with the skin left on. It cooks better, too.

Most of a the fat in fish flesh is right under the skin; skinning the fillet removes the fat making the fillet prone to drying out when cooking. Dry fish like snapper and hapuku especially benefit from cooking skin side down and even oily fish like kahawai or tuna are better cooked with the skin attached to the fillet. Scale the fish before filleting and preferably before gutting it.

Then treat the fillet in the normal way, boning it our as you would normally. Always cook the fillet skin side down first. Make a few gashes in the skin to stop the fillet curling in the pan and slide it into a medium hot pan with a splash of olive oil. Finish the fillet flesh side down and present it this way on the plate, too. The end result is delicious, the skin often crispy and the flesh moist and juicy. Try it.