Nutrition and healthy eating

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Cooking fish is easier than you think

You want to eat more fish, in keeping with the latest dietary guidelines that recommend increasing the amount and variety of seafood in your diet. But you don't know where to start. Don't worry — cooking fish isn't difficult, as you'll see in this guide.

To begin with, only buy fish that is refrigerated or properly iced. Fresh fish should smell fresh and mild, not fishy, sour or ammonia-like. Whole fish and fillets should have firm, shiny flesh and bright red gills free from slime. When buying frozen fish, avoid packages placed above the frost line or top of the freezer case. If the package is transparent, look for signs of frost or ice crystals. These could mean the fish has been stored a long time or thawed and refrozen — in which case, choose another package.

1. Fresh and frozen seafood: Selecting and serving it safely. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm077331.htm. Accessed May 27, 2011.
2. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/DGAs2010-PolicyDocument.htm. Accessed March 21, 2011.
3. Culinary Institute of America. Techniques of Healthy Cooking. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2008:85.
4. Recipe: Sea bass en papillote. MayoClinic.com. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recipes/RE00071. Accessed May 27, 2011.
5. Recipe: Grilled salmon on sourdough. MayoClinic.com. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/grilled-salmon/NU00398. Accessed May 27, 2011.
6. Nelson JK (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. May 27, 2011.
7. Mouth-watering over-fried fish. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/other/ktb_recipebk/ktb_recipebk.pdf. Accessed May 27, 2011.