Hello! I’m glad you’ve joined me here at The Stone Soup Cook! This week, I am taking a deep dive into the Smithey 11″ Deep Skillet. In Monday’s post, I introduced you to the pan and went over the specs. In Tuesday’s post, I reviewed my first cook with this beautiful pan. And in Wednesday’s post, I made roast chicken and chicken stock.
Today, I’m going to sear and pan fry some fish.
So let’s get cooking!
Both after roasting a chicken and simmering the carcass for stock, I promptly cleaned and re-seasoned the skillet. Here’s what the skillet looked like after re-seasoning after those two cooks:
I decided to give searing a piece of salmon a go. Click for the recipe I used for seared salmon.
First, I heated the pan up on medium-high heat, and then doused it with a couple of tablespoons of pecan oil. I drizzled a little pecan oil (instead of butter, as I call for in the recipe) on the flesh of the salmon and then gently placed it in the pan, flesh-side down. I let it cook there undisturbed for about 4 minutes (this was a large center-cut piece of fish, about an inch, maybe an inch and quarter thick).
After the four minutes, I attempted to flip the fish, but felt resistance, so I let it sear for another minute or so. I again attempted, and again encountered resistance. Not wanting to risk scorching the flesh of the fish, I flipped the fish anyway, and here’s what I got:
As you can see, there was some sticking and the nice seared bits got left on the pan. I seared the fish on the skin side for about 3.5 minutes, and the fish came out perfectly done–flakey, moist–everything you want in salmon, except for that nice sear–and the skin didn’t stick–slid right out of the pan.
Here’s the pan after the cook:
Sorry–the picture is a little blurry, but you get the idea–there was some sticking from the flesh of that fish that was more than I could just gently push off. I think I just tried this test too soon after having stripped the seasoning off the pan and I intend to try this test again next week after I’ve used the pan and re-seasoned it a few more times. So, chalk this one up to pilot error, I think.
After this minor set-back, I remembered that I have read that the best thing to do when you have a cast iron pan that needs re-seasoning, is to fry in it.
So my next test was pan frying some red snapper. For this test, I did an extremely simple treatment: I brined the fish filets using about 1/3 cup salt and a couple of tablespoons of sugar dissolved in about 3 cups of cold water. I brined for about 30 minutes at room temperature. Then I sprinkled the filets with a little lemon-pepper seasoning and dredged them in some all-purpose flour.
I heated the pan up to medium-high and poured in about a 1/4″ of pecan oil and let it get nice and hot, but not smoking. I carefully placed the dredged red snapper filets into the oil and let them cook, undisturbed for about 2.5-3 minutes.
Here’s what they looked like when I turned them:
Not the greatest color, but they didn’t stick. I let them cook undisturbed for another 3 or so minutes on the other side and here’s the final result:
A tiny bit of sticking, but overall, a good crust, good color and a good result, I think.
I haven’t decided what I’ll try next, but tune in tomorrow for my final day of reviewing this pan!
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
