Question: Fresh fish

[mightyh]

I'd like to start eating more fish. Right now I only have it about once a week... for those of you who eat a ton of fish, how do you have fresh fish? Do you buy it once a week and freeze it till you're ready to eat it? Or do you stop at the store each day and bring some home fresh? Any tips?

[emilycat]

Before this year, I tended to buy fish once or maybe twice each week, each time cooking enough to eat twice. In my opinion, just sticking fish in the freezer and then thawing it later is just not tasty.
Right now, I'm in high heaven because my father goes fishing in Alaska each year, and this trip, he had a couple hundred pounds shipped back home vacuum sealed, so you can keep it in the freezer, but when you thaw it out in the fridge, it tastes like it just came off the boat. It's a dream. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif I have a lot of king salmon and halibut, some smoked salmon, ling cod and yellow eye snapper. And I only took about 1/6 of what my parents had at home, and it fills up much of my freezer. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/eek.gif Lucky for me, my family doesn't eat much fish, so I get to cut significantly down on my grocery bill for a long time to come.

[Gail]

Depends.

Living practically up the street from a pier and fish markets, you'd think I'd get a lot of really good fresh stuff. Not necessarily. I get positively jazzed when something really nice comes in-- like some snowy white piece of fresh swordfish (sorry S) or some wonderful island fish from Hawaii. That has to cooked immediately-- it's never going to taste the same after it's hung out in my freezer a while.

The problem is that some fish just aren't readily available, and my favorite fish market is not exactly around the corner, so sometimes I'll go on fish rounds and buy several different varieties, some of which will end up in the freezer. Sometimes you just have to do things for the sake of convenience...

[JanetB]

Fish is one of those things - that I buy the day I am cooking. I prefer to go to a fish market - and often I don't have a plan as to what I want. I just get what looks best - and what is fresh. If I know I want more than one serving - I'll cook both that day.

I also like it because it can be eaten cold on a salad or the like - and it is unnecessary to heat it up in the office microwave.

[MrsReber]

I don't eat fish, but I wanted to offer a word of caution. My husband and I like to fish so he hardly ever buys fish at the market. We either catch it or his friends will give him some of what they catch. However, I know in our area in NJ, it is not good to eat too much fish because of the PCB's. There's also alot of mercury in the fish in our area and that is very unhealthy. Supposedly children and pregnant women should not eat much fish at all. I think it may be once a month. Even healthy men are not supposed to eat much. I don't know the exact numbers and farm raised fish should be okay- and probably the fish that comes from other places like Hawaii and the islands, but I just wanted everyone to be aware.

[bijoux22]

We usually have fish at least twice a week. Pan seared salmon, cod prepared in a variety of ways and a fish stew.

I watch my local grocery stores (both are great places for very fresh fish-deliveries daily) for sales. I almost always talk to the folks who work at the fish counter and get the scoop on what is freshest.

I use the fish on the day it is bought.