Not only every good housewife, but any self-respecting fisherman has a couple of signature recipes for preparing a variety of fish dishes. A special place among them is pickled fish at home. Not everyone can cook this delicacy, it is not so easy to achieve good results. But nothing is impossible! If you want to learn the technology of preparing marinades for fish, follow our recommendations. Be patient, spare no effort - and the result in the form of a fragrant fish will reward all your labors.
What is marinade and how does it differ from salting
The pickling process involves not only introducing new tastes, but also changing the physical and chemical properties of the product. Have you noticed that the pickled herring is denser than raw even salty?
The marinade is always based on an oxidizing ingredient. It can be vinegar, lemon or grape juice, dry wine. If you do not use acid, do not call the process of pickling - we are talking about salting.
Pickled fish at home can be prepared using highly carbonated mineral water. However, in this case, it still makes sense to introduce an acid into the solution. And in order to make the taste of the product softer, add a little sugar (or honey).
Do not forget about pickling, previous heat treatment. Before baking on the grill, grill or even in the oven, it is advisable to pickle some fish. This will make the taste of meat more saturated, accelerate the effect of aromatic seasonings. The fact is that the marinade works like a conductor, delivering spices deep into the steak or carcass. By the way, if you plan to cook fish at the stake, sour-milk basis also allows you to achieve excellent results: yogurt, whey, kefir. But if you plan to serve the fish in a pickled form without subsequent heat treatment, sour-milk marinade is not suitable.
Homemade Marinade Products
Raw vegetables (onions, carrots, bell peppers), aromatic herbs (watercress, lemon sorghum, thyme, tarragon), dry spices, and pepper mixtures will help to fill the marinade with aromas. Dill, both fresh and dried, harmonizes very well with fish.
Soy sauce is just made for fish dishes! It gives pickled fish not only taste, but also a pleasant amber hue. Mustard will make the sauce tender, and will add flavor and pungency to the fish.
Want to play with color? Add a little saffron to the marinade - it will provide an expressive golden color, reminiscent of the color of smoked fish. Paprika also has a strong coloring effect. Both of these seasonings need to be added in a small amount: saffron has a pronounced sweetish taste, its abundance will “look” ambiguous; and paprika, especially hot, can drown out the rest of the seasonings with the rich taste of bell pepper.
Do not forget about the "classics of the genre" - peas and bay leaves are in perfect harmony with the fish.
Basic cold marinade recipe
Cooking such a dressing always gives a good result. According to the recipe, any river or sea pickled fish can be cooked. At home, you can do pink salmon, salmon, and trout.
Essential Ingredients:
- salt - 1 tbsp. l .;
- sugar - 1 tsp;
- vinegar, vegetable oil - 3 tbsp each. l
In addition, we will need spices: bay leaf, allspice , French grain mustard. In the marinade, you can add onion sliced in half rings, grated carrots, greens on a Korean grater. The cooking method is extremely simple - mix the ingredients, wait for the salt and sugar to dissolve, fill in the tightly laid carcasses or pieces of fish and leave at room temperature for a day. In the summer, after two hours, remove the container to the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.
Hot marinade and its features
The following recipe for pickled fish at home is suitable for mackerel, herring, tuna, saury and other similar varieties of fish.
Pour half a liter of water into the pan and set on fire. Add 1 tbsp. l salt, 1 tsp. sugar, 2 bay leaves, grains of allspice and bitter pepper (to taste). While the marinade begins to boil, cut the fish into slices, place it tightly in a glass dish (you can in a jar), layering onion rings. In a boiled liquid, add 1-2 tbsp. l vinegar and pour on the fish. The main advantage of this method is that after 2-3 hours the dish can be served to the table.
Preparation for the process
Different varieties of fish require different pre-treatment. Be sure to thoroughly rinse the carcasses before pickling fish at home. Silver carp, Pilengas, zander and other fish with scales will also have to be cleaned.
If you plan to send fish to the marinade with your head, be sure to remove the gills, otherwise the dish will acquire a marsh flavor. The intestines and entrails are best removed (the exception is only a very small fish).
Should bones be removed from fish? It all depends on your preferences, there is no single standard. For example, not all admirers of herring love her in a filial state. Many people prefer to relish the dense pieces on the bone, gnawing ribs. It is permissible to serve red fish both in the form of fillet and in the form of slices. If you are preparing fish for sandwiches, it will be more convenient to remove the bones immediately. And milling only harms some varieties: for example, mackerel, saury, herring are destroyed if the bones are removed from the meat. It’s very difficult to get beautiful, even pieces without bone.
Korean marinade
Do you like spicy? Then you will certainly enjoy pickled fish at home, cooked in Korean. Add a little soy sauce (2-3 tablespoons) to the classic cold marinade, 1 tsp. mustard, 2-3 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp. l tomato paste. Do not spare the spicy seasonings, because oriental cuisine is famous for them. You can cook according to this recipe not only herring, but also hake, pikeperch and even silver carp.
In the marinade, add coarsely chopped parsley, grated on a Korean grater vegetables (carrots, celery, parsley root), as well as more onions. Fragrant vegetables served with fish emphasize its aromas and tastes.
Harvesting for future use: spicy silver carp
The following recipe is a great way to fish. If you are faced with the need to quickly process a large amount of fresh silver carp, prepare salamur. It can be stored in the refrigerator for several weeks.
Boil a liter of water and let cool to 30 ° C. Add the following ingredients in an amount of 125 grams:
- vinegar;
- vegetable oil;
- salt;
- sugar.
You can use any favorite spices for marinade: cloves, allspice, asafoetida, zira. Pour tightly packed pieces into a container, fill with marinade so that it completely covers the fish. After a day, drain the marinade, transfer the pieces into sterile jars, intercalating with onions, pour oil and cork. Such pickled fish (silver carp) at home is well stored in the refrigerator.
Fish from the river
In the Far East, He’s salad is prepared from freshly caught fish. When trying to repeat a classic recipe, be aware of the risks: parasites that are dangerous to humans can sometimes be found in local river fish. Better use lab-bought fish.
Pickled river fish at home, for example, carp, is perfect for this dish. You need 2-3 onions and a few cloves of garlic per kilogram of fish. Cut vegetables into strips and fish into pieces (do not remove the skin). Stir, adding salt, pepper, torn into large pieces of cilantro, rings of hot pepper to your taste. On average, such a quantity of products requires 3 tbsp. l vinegar. You can add a little aromatic homemade sunflower oil to the salad. Fold the blank in a glass dish and leave for a day.
Delicate marinade for red fish
Salmon (salmon) is rather oily, and pink salmon are rather dry. Therefore, in the first case, you can do without adding oil, and in the second, add a little olive. The taste of red fish is expressive and bright, so you should not jam it with garlic, onions, vinegar, and generally it is better to use seasonings to a minimum. Pickled red fish at home can be cooked according to the following simple recipe.
Cut the fish into large portions, put it tightly in a bowl, sprinkled with sea salt and layered with very thin slices of lime or lemon. You can lightly sprinkle with dry white wine. Want a flavor? Add a few branches of fresh dill. That will be quite enough. Serve the dish in the table after 4-6 hours.
Serving to the table
Before pickling fish at home, consider a menu. An excellent choice can be any side dish of potatoes: mashed potatoes, boiled or baked tubers. Or do without a garnish at all? You can serve homemade pickles, delicious bread, mushrooms, and tomato juice as a drink.
And also dishes from home-made pickled fish are excellent as snacks for strong alcohol and beer.