How can you figure out if the fish is fresh?

The fish’s eyes should be clear and bulge a little. Only a few fish, such as walleye, have naturally cloudy eyes.
Whole fish and fillets should have firm and shiny flesh. Dull flesh may mean the fish is old. Fresh whole fish also should have bright red gills free from slime.
If the flesh doesn’t spring back when pressed, the fish isn’t fresh.
There should be no darkening around the edges of the fish or brown or yellowish discoloration.
The fish should smell fresh and mild, not fishy or ammonia-like.

Salmon A Poacher’s Delight

 We use an oval casserole dish which is large enough to hold a fish of up to about 4 kilos (eight pounds) in weight and in which we place a triple folded strip of kitchen foil slightly longer than the pot.

What is this for? To lift the fish out once it’s cooked, which is done by pulling the two ends of the foil apart so that the fish lifts up on it as if on a stretcher. You then keep it taut while transferring the fish to a suitable dish. It’s a little tricky but easily managed with care. Try it with the uncooked fish first.

Here’s the easy portion of cooking Salmon:

First put your fish into the pot you are going to cook it in and cover it with cold water. In this way you will have exactly the right amount for whatever size of fish you are cooking.

Next take the fish out, leave it to one side, and add the following to your water:

· 2 wine glasses of vermouth, dry white wine or very dry sherry
· 1 onion, peeled, cut in half and studded with 2 cloves in each half
· 1-2 bay leaves
· 6 whole peppercorns
· 1 carrot cut into quarters
· the pared-off rind of half a lemon

Bring this all to the boil, take it off the heat, add your fish, cover and leave to cool.

That’s it. Who said cooking fish was difficult?

Once cold, the skin will easily peel off the fish and you can either decorate it with finely sliced cucumber (to look like scales) and mayonnaise, or simply serve it, which is what I do.

If you do want to present the “whole” fish, you might want to remove the bones to make it easier to serve. This is not really as difficult as you might think, although some care is required.

First remove the skin from the body of the fish, but leave the head whole. Then, using a fish slice and your hand, carefully remove the top fillet (the half nearest the head) and lay it, skinned side down, on your serving dish. Do the same with the flesh at the tail end. Check for any small bones and remove them.

You can now see the entire backbone. Snip this off at the head and tail, carefully remove it from the bottom half of the fish and discard it.

The rest is very easy. Put the bottom fillet on top of the one already on your serving dish, replace the head and tail in their correct position and disguise the joins with piped mayonnaise and/or sliced cucumber.

You can now decorate to your hearts content and in whatever fashion you wish. Just be sure to cover over any damage to the fillets caused by your handling of them.