I'm trying to eat more fish... what's the best fish to start with?

[greenourle]

I'm trying to incorporate more fish into my diet for health reasons but I'm
Clueless as to which dish isn't too strong in taste and also what way to cook it etc? For example in tinned salmon disgusting compared to smoked salmon?
I'm rubbish

Wrap salmon (not smoked) fillets in tin foil with a knob of butter, sprinkle of salt and pepper, and lemon slices on top and bake.

Or fry salmon fillets in butter, salt and garlic for a more crispy finish.

Serve with potato (any way you like!), green veg (whichever you prefer!), crème fraiche and plenty of lemon to squeeze over everything.

I never tire of this for dinner. It's also nice with cous cous instead of potatoes. I mix in butter? Garlic, salt, pepper, spring onions and cucumber.

Creamy tagliatelle with salmon flakes through is also lovely. I make the sauce by thinning down Boursin cheese with some milk in a saucepan.

Smoked salmon is good through scrambled eggs and eaten on sourdough toast.

I love fish but live in a household where no one else is a huge fan so I don't eat as much as I would like.

My main advice would be go to a fishmonger rather than the supermarket. Ask them what they would recommend that day or what they have on special.

The BBC Good Food website is pretty good for accessible tasty fish recipes

Salmon whether fresh or tinned is lovely but go for Pacific or Atlantic because there are significantly less pollutants; avoid tuna because of the mercury, sea bass because of microplastics . I love salmon and often have tinned on jacket potato with grated cheese, and grilled with fresh veg or salad, very nutritious oily fish rich in vitamins. Sardines are also good. Avoid bottom feeders like prawns and shrimps; crab and lobster, clams and farmed scallops are also high in toxins.

I like tinned sardines and mackerel. You can get them in a range of different sauces - the spicy sauces are my favourite.

Love kippers💓

I love lobster 🦞

Tins of sardines - I like the Waitrose ones in lemon - just put under the grill on some lightly toasted whole meal bread for 30 seconds. Very quick and easy.

Which supermarkets do you shop at? If it still has a fishmonger, they may do an option where you choose you fish and then they bag it with a flavoured butter and you just cook it in that bag. Dead simple to cook and then just serve with whatever you like

Tuna steaks are good. They are a 'meaty' kind of fish. Also perfect for quick dinners as they only take a few minutes on each side.

Smoked salmon - loads of lemon juice and black pepper if you like those things. Start with a small amount if it on an open sandwich or brown bread.

Roasted salmon is great and can stand robust flavours.

Fresh tuna is also nice and not too dissimilar to canned tuna. I rarely bother cooking it myself though.

Have you eaten sushi? Wasabi & soy help you get over the initial "raw fish" thoughts!

I also quite like peppered mackerel. Fresh mackerel is delicious and not quite as "fishy" or oily in the mouth. But only really fresh, as in caught that day imo!

Obviously cod / haddock but as to other white fish - dover sole is lovely and delicate - sea bass is delicious!

The fresher the better - if it smells strongly or overpoweringly fishy its probably not that fresh and it's not going to be as nice.

fish fingers

Tinned salmon is awful, smoked salmon is meh but you should try hot smoked salmon it comes as a cooked fillet and tastes amazing in salad or with pasta.

I use frozen white fish (basa, pollock) with passata, peppers, chickpeas and green beans (any other veg you fancy also fine) with a couple of tablespoons of baharat spice mix to make a tagine-ish. V nice with flatbread or cous cous.

Another nice simple salmon recipe here from Gousto: honey soy salmon

I’ve never had a Gousto box, I just use some of their recipes online

I like the idea of salmon with chilli with a big salad

These fillets are delicious in a salad
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/281693820

Smoked haddock risotto

Fish pie is a family favourite in our house...
-cube some salmon, smoked haddock and cod/hake
-cover with approx 1/2 pt of parsley sauce
-top with mashed potato
-cook in the oven for approximately 20 mins
-serve with peas or broccoli

delicious!

kedgeree is lovely too as is seafood paella, also tinned makers with tomatoes and red onion on brown toast!

Mackerel

Bass is inexpensive, mild and sold everywhere.
It's a good start into 'white fish' without the expense of cod until you are more confident to cook it.

I had to train myself to like fish, but tinned pink salmon is quite the most disgusting thing I have ever tried to eat. Quality is everything for me when it comes to fresh fish. I can taste the texture difference when it is frozen - I made a fish pie for my husband and of the three kinds of fish one was frozen. It was very much less nice.

I can eat white fish - but I only like it breadcrumbed or battered. I've had the most beautiful skate cooked for me and hated it. It has to be very, very fresh - I loved bream in Turkey but hated it from supermarkets. I bough posh cod to make homemade fish fingers like flipping Katy in "I can cook" for my four year old. We both detested it but my husband yummed it up. It is so personal. Sauces are required for white fish for me. Tomatoe ketchup upwards!

The magic for me is smoking. If it's smoked, I'll eat it. All the fish, white or oily, down to eel. Can't stand eel until it turns up smoked on my sushi.

Trout and salmon are my go to fish. You can cook fillets very simply in the oven. If I have a big fish I sometimes mix the cooked flesh with mashed potato to make fishcakes.

I say about quality because some smoked salmon now is disgusting. Farmed salmon is the fish version of battery chicken. It used to be a treat, now it's low nutrient meat trading off a reputation from 50+ years ago. Smoked trout is more reliable. Smoked mackerel is usually good. If on my own I will warm up half the fillets in the oven to eat with new potatoes, and then blitz the rest with horseradish and cream cheese for a pate. And chilli goes really well with oily fish. Sweet chilli fishcakes for example.

If you know a fly fisherman they will quite often let you have their catch for what it costs them. I get amazing trout from a friend.

Fillets and a bottle of sauce you like would be my starting point.

While this article on tinned fish only has a couple of suggestions, the comments have many more. I love fish, usually buy it frozen - hoki, barramundi, salmon fillets, pacific cod, and lots of tinned fish.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/jan/18/tinned-fish-recipes-your-easy-meal-fix-kitchen-aide

White fish with a red sauce or with mustard/bacon/cream.

Salmon baked with different glazes - miso is very good.

Tuna is great if you can get sashimi quality - great cubed in a choice with avocado, mango etc or as tuna tartar. Not that keen on tuna steaks, gets dry and boring.

Smoked mackerel with some horseradish cream or in a salad. If you can get steamed mackerel that's even better - I've only ever come across that on the Dutch seaside though.

Sea bream (dorade) is getting widely available farmed and is great baked whole, stuffed with some herbs and onion and lemon slices. Same treatment works for trout but it's a drier fish.

We eat a lot of salmon and smoked haddock . My husband also eats tuna but I don’t like it . Main dishes we have are salmon fillets with either veg or salad , salmon encroute , haddock cheese bake , haddock with veg / salad and fish pie .

We eat fish OH catches mackerel and sea bass. Sea bass we put a little oil and butter in a frying pan and cook for five minutes each side, ditto salmon fillets then serve with new potatoes and salad

I love a seafood platter so smoked salmon, smoked mackerel and rollmops with a salad.

M&S do lovely fish cakes. OH does a smoked haddock and chorizo risotto which is gorgeous.

I bought some lemon sole from Iceland which was beautiful.

Never curried fish though.

Tin of anchovies in olive oil as a base for puttanescca. Make curry, by using what veg you want, half a jar of mango chutney, double cream or coconut milk, add cod for a five minutes before the end of cooking.