Scallion-Oil Fish
Published Oct. 18, 2024

- Total Time
- 25 minutes
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Advertisement
Ingredients
- Coarse kosher salt
- 8ounces white fish fillets, such as cod, halibut, black sea bass, haddock, flounder, tilapia and lemon sole
- 6tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1bunch scallions, thinly sliced crosswise (1 heaping cup)
- Flaky sea salt, for serving (optional)
- Crusty bread, for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Sprinkle a heaping ¼ teaspoon kosher salt over the fish fillets and refrigerate, uncovered, to brine and air dry a little, about 10 minutes.
- Step 2
Meanwhile, add the olive oil and sliced scallions to a small cold skillet and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the scallions are dark green and some are brown, anywhere from 7 to 12 minutes. Turn off the heat but keep the skillet on the burner.
- Step 3
Gently and immediately add the fish to the skillet, cutting into two or three pieces to fit as needed. Spoon some of the hot oil over the fish. Leave the fish to cook in the residual heat on the first side, 1 to 3 minutes, then flip and cover with the fried scallions and let cook on the second side until the insides are no longer translucent, 1 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the flaky sea salt, if using.
- Step 4
Serve the fish immediately, directly from its pan if desired, with the bread to dip into the flavorful scallion oil.
Private Notes
Comments
The scallion oil is delicious, but this cooking method as written will only work for thin fish fillets. I tried this on some beautiful 1” thick halibut pieces and they were completely raw in the center. Easy enough to fix by turning the heat back on, but in the future I will choose much thinner pieces of fish.
Bake a potato so it’s ready when fish is ready Pour a little of the fish scallion oil into the potato Divine
Hey William, great question- When cooking this recipe w/ induction, I might still turn off the stove and let the residual heat from the hot oil gently poach your fish. If they're thin fillets, they'll cook in 2 or so minutes; the thicker ones need a little longer. Check the insides before eating and see that they're opaque. Worst case scenario, just heat the fish to temp over low. The key to this recipe is slow, gentle heat, more confit than fry. Eric
This was delicious. I used sablefish and ignored the cooking time and method when I added the fish. I could tell it wouldn’t cook the fish sufficiently. I just cooked on low / medium heat until the fish reached an internal temperature of 135 degrees.
As others have noted, the off-the-heat cooking suggested for the fish didn't work for me; I had to bring the heat back up to lowish medium to finish the cook, and mine weren't the thickest filets (cod). Other than that, it's a very flavorful and easy prep. A little s&p helped it along, as well as a shower of toasted bread crumbs to garnish. I served it over rice, which was very good, but next time I'll go with bread for mop-up duty.
As someone who hates rare fish, I kept the heat on after adding the fish to the scallion oil. It is delicious.
