I wanted to drop in and share a simple fish dish I made this morning on the Eyeopener to mark the start of fishing season in Alberta and the first green buds appearing in the backyard. It feels like spring might finally be here.
People often worry that cooking fish is difficult, but it’s actually one of the quickest things you can make. Thin whitefish fillets take about two minutes per side in a hot pan. All you need is salt and pepper, or a light dusting of seasoned flour, then a hot skillet with butter or ghee for flavour. The real magic happens at the end: add a splash of white wine or a squeeze of lemon to the pan, toss in a spoonful of capers, a handful of roughly chopped tomato, or some chopped olives. Use the liquid and a little extra butter to loosen the browned bits from the pan and you’ve got a simple pan sauce in about a minute. Spoon that over the fillets and you have a restaurant-worthy finish with very little effort.
This method works with any whitefish fillets and is adaptable to what you have on hand. If you like, briefly cook asparagus in the same pan until it’s tender-crisp before you cook the fish so there’s only one pan to wash. With minimal prep and fast cooking, fresh fish really is fast food that tastes like more.