Fried
plaice (dab or common sole). Bake the plaice
nice brown in a frying pan with what butter or better olive oil, first for a moment on
higher and then on lower fire, in approximately 5-10 minutes per side (depending on the
size), the white side first. Use roast or fish herbages before you put the fish in the
pan. Wait until the frying pan with the olive oil is hot before you put the the plaice in
it, otherwise you get to fat plaice. Serve a rice dish with it, if the plaice is meant for
the main meal. Left you see a common sole and right a plaice.
Dab and lemon sole belong also to the family of plaice, and not sole. Both are smaller
sorts of flatfish and are native to shallow seas around Northern Europe in large
abundance. Here right under you see a lemon sole.
Stewed plaice (dab or common sole). Let the plaice boil (stew)
submerged in salt water with a little vinegar in 4-8 minutes (depending on the size),
until the fins are easy to remove with a fork. Serve the plaice with a sour sauce and the
cooked or mashed potatoes with a butter sauce. Eventually you put on the table also
already cooked red beets or red cabbage (from a glass pot or tin).
Fried haddock (or whiting). Remove the
head, cut the fish lengthwise and remove fish bone, tail and fins. Fry the two halves like
described for baked plaice. As vegetables fit summer carrots. The Britons serve hereby
potato frites (fish and chips). Left haddock and right whiting.
Stewed haddock (or whiting). Make the fish ready for cooking as
above mentioned and boil them as mentioned for the stewed plaice. Make a mustard sauce for
the haddock or whiting
and a butter sauce for cooked or mashed potatoes.
Fried
eel. Fry the cleaned and skinned eel in 8-12 minutes per side (depending on the size)
like fried plaice and do not forget the herbage. Fresh eel you can buy in the old Dutch
fisherman towns around Lake Yssel
(IJsselmeer) in the autumn and in another saison from aquaculture or deepfreeze.
Stewed eel. Stew the cleaned and skinned eel in salt water during
10 minutes. After your choice you add as tablespoon vinegar and a tablespoon minced
parsley. After removing the bone of the stewed eel you can use a sour sauce for the eel.
Use a butter sauce for the boiled potatoes or potato puree.
Smoked eel. You can buy already smoked eel in the fish shop or on
the fish market. It tastes delicious on white bread, after removing of the fish head,
tail, bone and skin.
Roasted mackerel is a delicious snack. Atlantic
mackerel is caught on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. You can fry fresh mackerels (from
the better fish shop) in a frying pan with some butter or olive oil or roast in grill oven
or on barbecue till they are auburn. Do not forget the herbage. Of course you can also
stew the mackerel till they are ready and serve with a mustard sauce. Fresh
mackerels must be made ready for cooking or frying immediate after buying, else vanish
the good taste. There after you can keep them fresh in your refrigerator for some hours.
The times needed for frying or stewing are as above mentioned or somewhat longer for the
larger mackerels. There are now strong restrictions for fishing mackerels on the North Sea
because overfishing and therefore not always fresh available in the Netherlands.
Steamed or smoked mackerel. You can also buy already smoked
mackerel in the fish shop or on the fish market. It tastes excellent on white bread,
just as smoked eel. Open the fish length wise and remove the fish head, tail and bone.
Take the white fish meat with a fork and a knife from the skin.
Other sorts or fish can be
prepared usually similarly as above mentioned, if the fishes are not too large. Personally
I like fried tub gurnard (sea robin),
if it is thoroughly done because the firm meat of the fish. Moreover the European red
gurnard is an inexpensive kind of fish. For haddock and whiting there are available
nowadays also more inexpensive Asian kinds of fish as substitution with the same good
taste in the better fish store.
In European supermarkets you can buy nowadays this Asian fish, usually only as cheap deep
freeze fish in larger fillets.
Fish sticks from the deep freezer, like Alaska pollock (or pollack) in the super market.
You can fry them in a frying pan with some butter golden brown within in a few minutes.
You can serve them with cooked or fried potatoes and summer carrots with some celery.
Pollock or coalfish is also an European fish in de colder water near Norway. The size of
caught pollock can vary from 50 to 90 centimeter, just a little smaller than codfish. You
can prepare fresh pollock as fresh codfish, with a little longer fry or
stew times for the bigger fish parts, as mentioned above for haddock and whiting.
Sharks and rays are cartilaginous fish and are on the
first step of the evolutionary stairway of vertebrated fishes. Spiny dogfish, spotted catshark and
several sorts of ray fish, such as the
common skate, also can be found in
the Northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. Mostly as additional catching of the bottom
trailing. They can be as large from 50 to 100 centimeters. These fishes also live near the
bottom of the sea farther offshore. They are not dangerous for the fishermen, except the
sharp fins and teeth of the shark and poison tail of the ray. Because overfishing these
fishes are now precious and pricey fishes in Europe. You can shark or ray fillets
preferably (well spiced) deep-fry or roast in grill oven or on barbecue, till they are
golden brown. Beloved in fish restaurants. Left you see a shark and right a ray.
Turbot and brill belong to the larger sorts of
flatfish and can be prepared as plaice, eventually as smaller fillets, without bones and
without fins. You can bake, cook or deep-fry these fishes. Brill also belongs to the
turbot family and taste as good. Turbot can reach a length till 90 cm and brill till 60
cm. They are a lot more pricey than the smaller flatfishes, because their abundance in the
sea is very small. These fishes can be found in the North Atlantic, Baltic Sea and
Mediterranean, primarily in deeper offshore waters. Because the high price now almost only
available in fish restaurants.
Left you see the picture of a turbot and right a brill.
Dutch
bakvis (bake fish) is a name for a teenage girl between 14 and 17. Original the name
bake fish came from the fishery as being to young not mature fish to throw overboard.
Sometimes bake fish can also mean to young baked fish, just as undersized plaice and
common sole. Even though these fishes are delicious to eat, it is nowadays forbidden.
Little baked dab is a good replacement and cheap on the European fish market. Also this
baked dab is delicious. Common dab
belongs to the smaller sorts of flatfish and are caught in the North See and Eastern
Atlantic around Northern Europe in large abundance. Right you see a common dab.
Kibbeling (batter-dipped fish bites), a typical Dutch
fried fish snack, is made from deep fried equal smaller parts of codfish, haddock,
whiting or pollack. Before putting the fish parts in hot oil, they are plunged in a batter
of flower, milk and herbs for fish. The fish is ready if the fish parts are coming
floating golden brown at the surface of the oil. Do not fry to long else the fish becomes
to dry. The fish parts are eaten with mayonaise-based remoulade or garlic sauce. Fresh
fried kibbeling is available in all Dutch fish stores or fish stalls and also in northern
Germany in towns near the sea or beach.
Lekkerbekjes (larger fish fillet), also an original fried Dutch
snack, are like kibbeling but made from the greater fillets of codfish, haddock, whiting
or pollack. Also deep fried in oil with a batter of flower, milk and herbs for fish. Left
you see fried fish bites (kibbeling) and right fish fillet (lekkerbek) and chips.
Fish and chips is also an excellent combination for fried fish like
Dutch kibbeling and lekkerbek. Do not go for this combination to the snack-bar of Dirty
Harry, but to a place of Long John Silver's. The
fish and the chips do not belong in the same deep frying pan.
North Sea or Atlantic herring. You can find all about herring at my
web page Dutch seafruits salads and specialties. Dutch new
herring, salted herring, Bismarck herring, rollmops, smoked buckling, kippers and fried
buckling.
Sauce for stewed fish. Though there are several sorts of
sauce available in the supermarket, I prefer to make these myself. Now traditional Dutch
sauces, after my mother's recipe.
Butter sauce. Use 50 gram flour with some
water to make a thick sauce and add 400 á 500 milliliter boiling water. Let this all boil
(while stirring) for a moment at low fire and add some salt. Add 50 gram or more dairy
butter. Butter sauce is for the cooked potatoes beside the stewed fish. Dutch butter (roomboter) is now exported all over
the wold and tastes a lot better than margarine.
Parsley sauce. Like butter sauce with an additional table spoon
minced parsley. This sauce is also for
the cooked potatoes beside the stewed fish. You can use dried parsley from a glass pot,
available at a grocery store, but fresh parsley, from your own garden or vegetable store
taste better. Do not cook fresh parsley, but add it just before served, because else it is
losing to much flavor and freshness.
Left you see garden parsley.
Like butter sauce with an additional table spoon simple table
mustard. Use hereby
preferably the boiling water of the fish. Mustard sauce is fine for stewed haddock,
whiting, mackerel and sort like fish. Left you see yellow table mustard.
Sour sauce. Like butter sauce with additional 50 ml vinegar, such as herb or wine vinegar. Use
here also the boiling water of the fish. Sour sauce belongs to stewed flatfish and stewed
eel (after removing bones). Right you see vinegar infused with oregano.
Sauces or spices for baked fish. For already in spiced
batter-dipped and deep-fried fish fillets are not really extra spices needed. But extra
fish spices are nowadays available in almost each fish store or supermarket and make the
fish more tasteful. The smaller batter-dipped and deep-fried fish bites are often eaten
with extra remoulade or aioli (garlic sauce).
Web site about fishes: North Sea
fishery and FishBase Online!
Fine quick-service seafood in the restaurants of Long John Silver's.
See also Cooksrecipes.com with Fish & Seafood Recipes or
Allrecipes.com with Seafood.
Menu by category for Dutch
recipes 
