By JANET K. KEELER

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 14, 2001

Ever feel like a fish out of water when you walk up to the seafood counter? Let's navigate the uncharted waters of buying and cooking fin fish.

ST. PETERSBURG -- Pure and simple, we are stuck on grouper. The other fish in the sea can't seem to lure us away from this Florida favorite despite being just as tasty, and easier on the wallet.

Truth is, grouper is safe for those of us who are slightly squeamish about fish. It doesn't boast the bold flavor of trout or the wild color of salmon. Its mild taste is easily, and often, masked by mayonnaise and melted cheese in a fried sandwich. It doesn't have a lot of bones that we fear will get caught in our throats. These are some of the reasons we love this fish for which Florida is famed.

In fact, we love it so much that federal fisheries officials hope a month-long commercial fishing ban on red, gag and black grouper during the height of the spawning season will give the grouper population time to replenish. The ban ends Thursday.

This brief ban may help, but, unless we learn to love other fish, it may be just the first in a series of bans to prevent overfishing of grouper.

Isn't it time we started playing the field? After all, we do live in Florida, surrounded by water inhabited by hundreds of varieties of fish. We also have plentiful access to fresh catch from elsewhere.

A few bad experiences with cooking or buying fish, however, can put us off on the notion of fixing fish for family and friends. The price tag is also a deterrent.

Who wants to experiment when tuna steaks are more than $14 a pound, with grouper not far behind? It's easier to turn to shrimp, which can be quickly boiled, peeled and dunked in cocktail sauce. That we won't mess up.

To help us learn more about how to buy and cook fin fish, we turned to St. Petersburg cookbook author and publisher Joyce LaFray. LaFray has just revised Underwater Gourmet (Seaside Publishing, $14.95), her 18-year-old compilation of seafood recipes from restaurants around the state.

LaFray started our lesson at the counter of Save on Seafood at 1449 49th Street S in Gulfport, her favorite place to buy fish.

"Doesn't it smell good," she asks as we step into the expansive market, "and isn't it clean?"

Lesson No. 1

Your nose is the first line of defense against bad fish, LaFray says.

If a market or its fish smell unpleasant, don't buy. Don't be mistaken, though; a fish market doesn't smell like the perfume counter at your favorite department store and may still be distasteful to some. However, the fish should smell of the sea, not of ammonia or anything else that makes you recoil. Don't be afraid to ask the person waiting on you to let you get a whiff of the fish you want to purchase.

On this day, LaFray is taken by beautiful salmon fillets for a mere $4.99 a pound.

"I could eat salmon three times a day," she says -- especially at that price. LaFray is somewhat astounded at the money people dish out for grouper, which she calls an "ordinary fish" at best.

"In 1975, grouper was the bargain fish," she says. "You could get it for 99 cents a pound, and people would come to Florida from up North and get a huge grouper sandwich for $2.99. Now, people in Washington, D.C., will pay $25 a pound for grouper."

Lesson No. 2

Just because a fish is expensive doesn't mean it's the best. Price is based on demand, and grouper is highly sought after, as are the trendy Chilean sea bass and tuna steaks.

Keep an open mind and consider lower-priced fish from area waters and beyond, such as sea bass (non-Chilean), red snapper, tilapia, cod, flounder and sometimes swordfish. Also, fish chunks, pieces left over when steaks are formed from width-wise slices of fish, can also be had at bargain prices and are the same quality. Compare $1.99 for a pound of tuna chunks, some 2 inches square, to $14.99 for tuna steaks.

As we walk along the case looking at the different fish, LaFray imagines out loud how she might cook each. She advocates basic recipes that emphasize the flavor of the fish rather than overpower it, which is especially important for beginning fish cooks so that they can taste the fish and know if they like it.

She would saute the flounder in olive oil and garlic. The salmon she would grill, skin side down, and serve with a sauce of sour cream, fresh chopped dill and diced cucumber. Swordfish would be marinated simply in olive oil, wine, lime juice and garlic and then grilled. Red snapper would be breaded lightly, sauteed and then topped with tropical fruits heated briefly in the same pan.

Whole fish present other opportunities, mostly conjuring up showy party menus for which an entire mangrove snapper or sheepshead would be stuffed with herbs and then steamed or grilled.

"Look at their eyes," LaFray said. "You can tell how fresh they are."

The eyes of a fish should appear natural. That means they are convex, not concave, and should still have an oval or round shape. The eyes generally should be clear, not milky. (Some very deepwater fish have somewhat milky eyes to start with.)

The biggest mishap, LaFray says, in preparing fish is overcooking, which makes it dry and tough. If you do that a few times, she says, you won't be buying fish anymore.

Some fish fillets come with the skin on, which many people find unappetizing. If so, ask that the skin be removed when you buy it or take it off after cooking.

Lesson No. 3

As a general rule, fish cooked on direct heat require 10 minutes per inch of thickness. For example, a 1/2-inch thick fillet, which is a piece of fish cut lengthwise off the spine, will take about 5 minutes, 2 1/2 minutes on each side, to pan fry. Baking will take longer, and you should follow the instructions in a recipe until you get a feel for the time. Fish is done when it is opaque and flakes easily at the touch of a knife or fork.

Armed with LaFray's insight and her cookbook, we returned on our own to Save on Seafood a few days later to buy fish for that night's taste test. On the menu were cornmeal-breaded grouper chunks, flounder ceviche and Snapper Rangoon from Underwater Gourmet (see accompanying recipe).

Uh-oh. Today's catch was different. There were no grouper chunks, the last red snapper fillets had just been snapped up, and the only flounder was previously frozen.

Hearing LaFray's "buy what looks good" mantra, we loaded up on mahi-mahi chunks and cod and sea bass fillets. After our initial dismay, we realized this is part of the fun of shopping a fish market. You never know what you'll find, but you can be assured that much of it came off a fisherman's boat in the last 24 hours.

If you have your heart set on tuna steaks or flounder fillets for a dinner party, most markets can order them for you.

The sauteed mahi-mahi was a smash, breaded with cornmeal laced with salt, cracked pepper and a spice blend of roasted red pepper and garlic. We kept a close eye on the clock, vowing not to overcook it.

The accompanying roasted red pepper sauce fell flat, and we attribute that to the metallic taste of fat-free sour cream and not following a recipe.

The cod was chopped into bite-size pieces and used in ceviche, a Latin American dish in which raw fish and diced vegetables are marinated in lime juice, oil, herbs and spices. The acid pickles the raw fish.

The cod ceviche was delightful and refreshing before the main course.

Big, meaty sea bass fillets stood in for snapper in the Rangoon dish, and it would be difficult to believe it could have tasted any better. The fish is dipped in egg and then dredged in flour before being sauteed in butter. The fish is removed from the pan and kept warm, while banana, pineapple, mango and strawberries are quickly heated with lime juice. The fruit mixture is served on top.

Lesson No. 4

Learn some basics about how different fish taste, and you can deal with anything you find at the grocery store or market.

For instance, there are many firm, mild fish that can take the place of grouper or snapper. Sea bass and flounder are just two. Ask the salesperson for help. Keep in mind that the darker the flesh of the fish (tuna, salmon, trout), the more pronounced its taste.

For our second class, we went to LaFray's kitchen. There she demonstrated how simple it is to cook fish with great results.

"In the time it takes you to read the directions on a frozen meal and microwave it," she says, "you could have cooked a fish dinner."

That might be slightly overstating reality, but it didn't take long for LaFray to fix Sauteed Red Snapper a la Disney (see recipe). The simplicity of this recipe, lightly breaded and sauteed in butter with Worcestershire sauce, lime juice and chopped parsley belies the incredible results, which LaFray attributed to the freshness of the fish.

It's likely that the fish she cooked was swimming only 24 hours before. (When you buy fresh fish, it's best to cook it within a couple days or freeze it.)

She also grilled marinated swordfish, during which she broke her own basic rule of fixing fish. We were talking so much that it cooked a few minutes too long and was a little dry. A draping of melted butter helped that situation.

Lesson No. 5

When cooking fish with direct heat, grill or skillet, make sure your pan is very hot. The high heat sears the fish and keeps moisture in. The high heat also prevents oil or butter from being absorbed into the flesh. If needed, you can always lower the heat after searing.

As with any culinary endeavor, it takes time and interest to master the undersea food world. There will be failures, you hope at $3 a pound rather than $13, but eventually there will be success, LaFray says.

Think of the kitchen as a laboratory and experiment, experiment, experiment. Find the fish you like and fry it, bake it, grill it and stuff it.

For now, though, let someone else gut it. That's a lesson we aren't ready for.

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