The cooked flounder is distinguished by juicy tender meat of white color. In addition, it contains up to 20% of complete proteins needed by the human body. The composition of amino acids in these proteins is well balanced, and these substances are perfectly absorbed in the human body. Flounder meat is suitable for dietary nutrition, as it contains only 3% fat, is considered low-calorie (83 kcal per 100 g of meat) and is rich in vitamins A, B and E. Eating flounder, a person receives many useful minerals: for example, phosphorus, which strengthens teeth , skeleton, hair, skin and nails, as well as iodine and fatty acids, which reduce the risk of cancer. The use of flounder is obvious, the taste of this fish is excellent, it remains only to find out how to clean the flounder and how to cook.
Primary treatment of flounder
What is primary fish processing? Firstly, it is defrosting, which is often not given serious significance. Secondly, the separation of inedible and contaminated parts from fish. Thirdly, the most difficult thing is the cleaning, which causes an attack of horror in many housewives. And finally, there remains gutting and giving the fish the necessary shape, depending on the cooked dish.
It would seem that the only thing that should be given attention in this article is the purification of fish from scales. And if cleaning a simple fish with easily detachable scales does not raise questions, then how to clean a flounder is not clear to most women who have no experience with this fish. But let's start by defrosting the fish, which is an important part of the cooking process.
Thawing Flounder
In order for the fish to contain the maximum amount of nutrients and vitamins, it is necessary to properly defrost it. To do this, you need to fill in the frozen flounder with cold water and slightly salt. Salt will provide less loss of minerals in fish, 8% of which usually disappears when thawed. For 1 kg of flounder, 2-3 liters of water and about 10-15 g of salt will be required. Thawing can take 2 to 4 hours, depending on the size of the fish. Why is it necessary to defrost fish only in cold water? In warm and hot water, some proteins are denatured, muscle tissue loses a large amount of muscle juice, the outer layers of the tissue become sagging, and the smell of stale fish arises.
But ice cream fillet, cutting of which took place before freezing, it is better to defrost without water at room temperature. In such a fillet, the loss of nutrients is especially large, so it is recommended to buy whole fish. Having learned how to carve a flounder yourself, you will get a more valuable dish. Thawed flounder should also not be subjected to strong mechanical treatment - beat off or squeeze. Every effort must be made to prevent the loss of precious juices.
How to clean a flounder
First you need to put the flounder so that the black skin is on top. Separate the head with an oblique cut from the eye side and make a small incision through the entire fish to the tail, ripping open the belly. Remove the insides and scrape off the scales from the light bottom of the fish. Then put your thumb between the upper skin of the flounder and the flesh and gently tear off the skin from the fish, starting from the tail. Scrape the blood off the vertebrae, cut off the fins, and rinse the flounder.
How to clean the flounder, if you can’t separate the skin from the fish for cooking?
The second option for cutting flounder is to leave the skin and clean off the scales with a knife or a hard brush. Some experts recommend scalding the fish with boiling water before cleaning, this will facilitate the disposal of scales. This is a much more complicated way of cutting fish, requiring patience and dexterity. But when you understand a few times how to clean the flounder more conveniently, it will not be a difficult process for you.