Cooking more fish has been on my radar for a long time, and for various reasons It just hasn’t happened. This recipe from the NY Times Cooking was appealing for its speed and simplicity. Serves 2:
Fast Fish in Scallion Oil
- Coarse salt
- 8 ounces white fish fillets, such as cod, halibut, black sea bass, haddock, flounder, lemon sole
- 6 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 bunch of scallions, thinly sliced (1 heaping cup)
- Flaky sea salt, for serving (optional)
- Lemon or chili crisp for serving (optional)
If necessary, cut the pieces of fish to fit the pan you’re going to use. Sprinkle a heaping ¼ teaspoon of salt over the fish and refrigerate, uncovered, to brine and air dry while you cook the scallions.
Add the olive oil and sliced scallions to a small cold skillet and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the scallions are dark green and some are brown, anywhere from 7 to 12 minutes. Turn off the heat* but keep the skillet on the burner.
Add the fish to the skillet. Spoon some of the hot oil over the fish. Leave the fish to cook in the residual heat on the first side, 1 to 3 minutes, then flip and spoon more of the oil and scallions over the fish. Cook on the second side until the insides are no longer translucent, 1 to 5 minutes. The cooking time will depend on the thickness of your fish.
Sprinkle with the sea salt, lemon and/or chili crisp, if using. Serve the fish immediately, and enjoy!
My verdict:
This could be a great way to cook fish, but it needed some tweaking. It’s easy, and the fish (cod in this case) was perfectly cooked. Served with some rice to soak up some of the scallion oil, it was still a little oily, so maybe a little less oil or a mix of oil and broth, lemon juice?? The scallions didn’t add much flavor, so I squirted some lemon in at the end and served it with chili crisp on the side.
Think of this as a springboard for experimenting. Maybe a little lemon peel/zest and some sliced garlic, in the oil to add flavor with the scallions. Or some chili crisp added to the oil (hmmm, that might be a winner).
A big plus–it got me out to the market, I made friends with the fishmonger, who told me about some of the other fish he had and colorfully commented about the state of US politics.
*If you’re using an induction cooktop, turn it down to one of the lowest settings. I used 2.
