Cook your Catch – Pan fried Salted Bluefish
Eugene L. 12.13.23
Like I said before I caught a lot of bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) on my pier fishing trip down to Panama City Beach. As in I gave away a bunch of them and had my own limit. So for my second bluefish recipe of this trip, I am going to prep a very simple salted bluefish. This is a very popular way of eating fish in Korea, where you butterfly a fish, usually with bones in, heavily salt it, and let it dry out for a day or two to firm up the meat. After that salting and drying process the fish will be pretty salty, but that is ok because you will be eating that with rice. You wouldn’t and shouldn’t be eating this by itself without a bowl of rice or some bland starch. Today though I semi-butterflied it and deboned the bluefish for an easier eating experience instead of the usual korean way of preparing it. This is 
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First step for prepping the salted bluefish is to scale the bluefish, making sure to get all the scales around the fins. Use a descaler or the back or your knife to do this.
Once the bluefish is completly scaled, give the fish, cutting board, and knife a good rinse to clean off all the scales. Then take the head off the bluefish before starting to butterfly it. Same method as I covered before, work at an angel from behind the head to behind the pelvic fins.
With the head gone, start working from the belly side of the fish, follow along the bones and work your way over the spine. When you reach the top of the fish, stop before you get through the skin. You can honestly just stop here if you don’t mind picking out some bones.
If you don’t want any bones in your salted bluefish, start filleting the other side of the fish. Again follow the bones then work over the spine. Don’t punch through the skin again.
You can finish off the butterflied bluefish in two ways here. You can use a pair of kitchen shears to cut the frame off the fillets, making sure to follow as close to the skin as possible. This will leave little bones right in the center line but they are very easy to eat around. Or you can just cut through the sking around the fins and remove them and the frame that way. After you remove the frame trim off the rib cage and using a pair of fish bone tweezers pull out the pin bones.
Cook your Catch – Pan fried Salted Bluefish
Pan fried Salted Bluefish Ingredients
- Skin-On Butterflied Bluefish
- Sea Salt
- Oil
- Lemon for Garnish
First step is heavily salting the bluefish fillets, kinda like how much salt you would put on a thick steak. Do this to both sides of the fillets. Press the salt into the fillets, then place the fillets on a tray and cooling rack to let air flow under them. Cover them with parchement paper and place in the fridge for at least overnight but preferably a day. You are wanting the salt to penetrate well into the fillet and draw out moisture, you want the airflow to help keep the surface dry as this is happeneing.
After that first salting period, take the fillets out one more time and give it a bit more salt on both sides. You will notice the fillets are a lot firmer now than when you had started. The color will have changed some as this process happens, but that should not be a concern.
After that second stint in the fridge of salting for the bluefish, pat it down with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture. Then put it skin side down into the hot pan.
If you have a grill press, use that to keep the fillets flat as you cook it, if not just press it with a spatula. You want the skin to stay in good contact with the oil and pan to crisp up the skin nicely.
After you see the fillets start chaging color about 2/3rd of the way through flip the butterflied bluefish. Cook on the meat side for 3 to 5 minutes.
Once the bluefish is done, serve with a couple wedges of lemon. Eat it with some kimchi and sticky rice, you will see the meat has firmed up a great deal and salt curing has boosted the umami flavor of the fish.
