This was my first time making it. Thanks to the TL IRC channel for helping me and giving me tips. I soaked it in lemon juice and it tastes really good. I only cooked it for two minutes on each side since it looks done.
There is some red in the middle, is that bad? I'm eating it regardless. It is also really chewy in other spots. And hard to cut in half. But the guy on this youtube video said it cooks really fast and a big mistake early chefs make is too much heat or overcooking it.
yeah, 4 mins is way too short. It shouldn't be chewy at all, the fish should easily break apart. Heat control is a huge part of cooking, but you should worry about cooking all the way through. Next time try using a lid and maybe increase the time 1 min or so.
Tilapia is so good, can taste great with just soy sauce and spices.
I hear it's all too easy to ruin fish by cooking it for too long. I guess variables like cooking method, temperature and surface to mass ratio of the fish are important to consider. Maybe you could try other recipes for the same dish to find which one yields the most delicious result.
Is there any chance you could provide a link to the YouTube video to which you refer?
Faust, I recommend you to look for some Filipino recipes for Tilapia. There are many dishes which you could cook!
Fried, or in a soup~
Also try out to make this assorted sauce which you could eat with your (fried) tilapia w/ rice.
Just put this in a small bowl:
1-2 tbl. spoons of fish sauce Half a tomato (dice into small pieces) Mango (dice into small pieces)
Try to put it on your tilapia when your about to eat it. It adds the salt, and it tastes quite tropical with the mangos and the tomato which adds lots of water which sometimes is the case to dry fish lol.
On June 22 2010 09:38 SCC-Faust wrote: I only cooked it for two minutes on each side since it looks done.
There is some red in the middle, is that bad? I'm eating it regardless. It is also really chewy in other spots. And hard to cut in half. But the guy on this youtube video said it cooks really fast and a big mistake early chefs make is too much heat or overcooking it.
Also, any recipes for next time? Thanks <3
As an somewhat-experienced food enthusiast I'd like to offer my humble thoughts
1) The emphasis of 2 minutes on each side is to make sure you do not OVERCOOK the fish. Too many times you see in mediocre restaurants serving overcooked fish. The texture of the fish should be flaky yet moist (juices retained by searing). Cooking fish on medium-high heat for an extended period of time is one way to ruin the meat. Depending on if the fish is fresh or frozen for a long time, the texture of the meat can change as well, but if it's chewy there is something wrong.
2) Any cooking videos/recipes you may encounter are not rock solid blueprints with no wiggle room. Keep in mind they are guides for beginners and people who want to learn. Thus, by keeping this in mind, you must realize every portion of fish is different in dimensions (most importantly thickness). Use your common sense and adapt to what you are cooking, not what the chef on youtube is cooking.
3) I know an awesome Korean dish using tilapia (it's very spicy) if you are interested let me know anytime! (The fish is served raw after being frozen to kill bacteria) It's called 회덮밥 (Hwe-Dup-Bab)
EPT![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/pDX2u.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/vbhqk.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/6iSda.jpg)
