teach me about cooking and eating fish

For a cookbook I would recommend "English seafood cookery" by rick stein. This is his first book, all his later books are twice the price and essentially rehashes of the this first book.

There are three basic types of fish: freshwater, white fish and oily fish.

Oily fish are generally the cheapest and have some of the most beneficial nutrients. We're talking mackrel, sardines, herrings and the like. You want to grill these fish or fry them rolled in oats and fry them. You can also get smoked oily fish, which is easiest to prepared and eat. Smoked mackrel you can just have cold and is very good in a salad.

White fish: Cod, Skate, Hake, Bass, Gurnard, Sole, Turbot, sea bass, plaice, monk fish, mullet snapper. OK not all "white fish" Don't eat cod, cos there is very little left and is being fished unsustainably. Go for the the cheaper fish. Can be fried grilled, baked (rolled up with herbs in tin foil and put in the oven). Learn to make hollandaise sauce. it's a great carrier for herbs and ideal acompanyment to many of these fish

here's how to do it:

2 egg yolks, some salt pepper, a tablespoon of water in a blender. Start the blender then add 250g of melted butter slowly till it thickens.

(to do it properly you should put the the first ingredients in a bain marie and add the butter to that whisking)

Then you have river fish, trout, salmon, salmon trout (of course salmon and salmon trout live in the sea aswell and only swim upriver to spawn). DOn't buy farmed because of the huge damage done by fish farming. So you won't be eating any of this that often cos wild is really expensive. When you dos bake the fish, its good baked with almonds and lemon thyme.

The easiest and quickest way to cook fish is pan frying fillets. I don't know what fishes you have where you live, here I usually use tilapia or catfish. Put the burner on medium-high heat, add oil + butter to a frying pan. Lightly coat the fish in flour and put in on, and cook until its golden-brown. Take the fish out, then in the remaining butter add some capers, a briefly cook them, then add a little lemon juice and pour it on the fish. There are many variations to this recipe.

the reason i've been told to eat fish is that i'm recovering from
serious illness and have become intolerant to gluten, so i need extra
protein sources....no fish fingers unfortunately (wheat in coating) :(
i'm vegetarian not through any principled stance but, well i just
never liked eating meat or fish. so i didnt.
i'm going to eat it now cos it will be good for me, even if i dont enjoy it....
(obv. i'm trying very hard to justify all this to myself...heh)
and i guess i'm not a vegetarian now cos i ate some fish an hour ago.
it was ok, but the texture was weird...and i cant get the taste out
of my mouth....

Ok, this only takes 5 minutes because we don't have time for anything in LA. And cook it while talking on your cell phone, a conversation you will finish in your car.

Ingredients:
FRESH not frozen salmon filet
salt and coarse pepper from a grinder
medium olive oil
clove of garlic
basalmic vinegar
a bag of pre-washed fresh baby greens

Dump the greens out onto a large dinner plate.

Salt and pepper both sides of the salmon
Thinly slice the garlic
Heat just enought olive oil to make a thick film in an omellette/frying pan until you can barely stand to hold your hand above it, but BEFORE it gives off steam/smoke. If it does, start over until you get it.

Throw in the garlic. It should sizzle and sweat but not turn brown.
Add the salmon immediately. This will lower the temp in the pan.
When you see the pink starting to disappear in the middle thickness of the filet, turn it over. Lower the heat a bit.
DO NOT OVERCOOK THIS or I will hunt you down.

When the filet is done (NOT brown, bright pink) and the middle is slightly meltingly barely done (not raw or sushi like) get it OUT of the pan, Right away.
The salmon forgives no one.

Dump it on top of the greens.

Before the pan cools, splash some balsalmic vinegar in it, a squeeze of lemon or a splash of white wine if you like, swish around in the olive oil/fish jiuce.

Take the salmon off the plate and set aside.

Toss the greens with the pan mixture and return to plate--or if you're deft, do it ON the plate.

Return the salmon to its rightful home atop the greens and grab a fork.

2. Get the lead singer from Marillion

etc.

(This is all in addition to ed's excellent advice)

By and large you should keep white fish treatments simple, bake with oil, salt and pepper, maybe a little garlic. But only a little. Quality of ingredients is key here.

Meatier fish can withstand a bit more roughing up. try this simple salsa, perfect for tuna and marlin to complement the meaty flavours, even better to cover up the flabby dullness of farmed salmon
(sidepoint, steak over fillet every time, fillet sweats out it's fat during cooking which leads to unappetising globules all over your hunk of protein, steak just looks better, further sidepoint, barbecues and salmon steaks were made for each other. I cannot emphasise this enough): roughly chop a handful each of coriander and mint, dash with lemon and balsamic and mix with anchovies, capers, salt and pepper ground together in a pestle and mortar, feel free to include olives. A friend of mine adds green chilli but I feel this is unnecesary.

Meaty fish, cook on griddle or hot grill (high temperatures serve to seal moisture in so long as you don't cook for too long - don't be afraid to eat it slightly underdone. Fish by and large contain none of the bacteria responsible for food poisoning. Such cases as have occurred are far more often down to incorrect storage). Delicate fish I like to cook en papillote, simply place your fish with it's seasoning and whichever vegetables you wish to serve with it on a sheet of greaseproof paper, spoon over two or three tablespoons of cooking liquid (stock, juice or wine, I'm fond of using grapefruit juice with duller fish such as trout as the acidity cuts through cleanly), fold it up and bake in a medium oven for ten to fifteen minutes or so. he idea is that the fish and veg steam inside the paper. It's as healthy as it is tasty. Enjoy your fish!

And check the Marine Conservation Society's "good fish guide" for what's overfished and unsustainable, and what's not.

I coated it in lime and garlic and oil. The skin would have been great.

Ew. Don't they flash-freeze sashimi before serving it? Isn't there a real health risk to eating actual raw fish, even in Japan?

I neglected to mention that I salted and peppered it, too. Anyway, I was told to make fish tacos with the remains. I had to blush!

hey, you're right. I was wondering why all the giant tunas were frozen.

"Um... intestinal parasites to thread"
but the trick is to eat enough raw fish so that you develop an immunity to the parasites. The human body is really adaptive in that way.