Chef John: Okay. Today we are doing, perch and perch is such a delicious, sweet, delicate fish. We don't want to do too much. So, we are not going to -- we are going to simply do with some Fried Capers, little brown butter and a delicious, roasted tomato, balsamic vinegar that I will actually demo on another post. So, I am just going to tease you with that one today but, there is my perch. It came frozen which is fine. Fresh frozen, probably better than fresh in general for most fishes because they freeze them on the boats and at higher quality than something that has been sitting in the case for three days. But perch is -- you just have to catch yourself now, lots and lots of different varieties of frozen fish, you get in a supermarket and of course we all have to eat lots and lots of fishes so, what I am going to do here with first before I throw it in the pan. I am going to take a really sharp knife and I am going to give it some scores, it's called these little thin slashes through the skin.
I am going to salt and pepper it and with those slashes you are going to do. It's going to allow you to stay flat when it cooks. See, if I didn't make those little cuts and if I just put salt and pepper and start frying it. They all curl up. Skin tightens when it -- when it hits the heat and you get some ugly pieces of fish. So, that's what those slashes were for and you are really going to see that when the cooking is finished, it really looks beautiful. The other ingredients, extremely simplistic. I got some fresh butter, couple of tablespoons and a couple of tablespoons in capers and here is the trick. Once you take half the capers and chop, alright that's super fine, but chop them up. So, those are kind of dissolve in the sauce and the whole ones are going to fry and be a kind of a garnish. Put your couple of table spoons of butter in a pan on medium.
Add you capers, see we have got some little tiny pieces and we got some whole pieces. Alright give those a fry for about a medium heat, about three or four minutes and the butter is going to get nice and foamy and what's going to happen. How you know, when to put the fish in, the foam of the butter, is just going to turn from white to a little bit slightly kind of tan color, okay. Now, that's why I am on medium heat not high heat. I don't want to turn from white to black. I want to just start to get a little bit nutty. I am going to put it in the fish skin side down. Alright and those are the only a couple of ounces each so it's just going to take, maybe two minutes on each side and while we are cooking the fish, the capers are up to the side frying, really imparting the butter with a delicious brownie flavor. After two minutes, I am going to flip it over and you see why I went skin side down and why I made those slashes.
Beautiful flat full layers. The flavors has gotten inside the meat now. It looks very cool, you cannot deny how cool that looks and by the way relax, we are not going to put all that butter on the plate. And that was like another minute or two on that side and we are done, ready to plate it up. Just so beautiful looking. So, I am going to take maybe a teaspoon of the fried capers. I am going to put that on the top and then maybe just half a teaspoon of the slightly brown butter on top and why I don't need much, is because what I am serving us with is a roasted tomato balsamic vinegar. Now, you didn't know see me putting any lemon. Two reasons, one, there is little bit of lemon in that pasta I am going to serve this with, I am also going to demo that and the acid in the roasted tomato balsamic vinegar, it's just the right balance.
So, I don't need lemon, don't think you have to put lemon on every single fish dish that you cook. That's just old school, always doing the things the same way. Really nice combo, the balsamic and the roasted tomato with the caper butter, fried perch, really delicious. Check the website, all the ingredients are on there. Takes maybe five minutes to finish this dish and as always, enjoy!
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