Cook fish to perfection

Brook trout cooked sous-vide, served with carrots, arranged on a plate

June 11, 2023 Recipe

Fish cooked to perfection – a real treat. For many, however, cooking fish isn’t much fun. Often, delicious fish fillets are cooked too long and at too high a heat, making them dry and tough.

To make this problem a thing of the past, here's our tip: In future, cook fish using the sous-vide method. You will be amazed at what perfect results you can achieve in your kitchen. We have compiled all the necessary information and cooking times for different types of fish to help you get started with sous-vide cooking.

In our recipe at the end of this article, we show that local types of fish are also suitable for sous-vide cooking and that you can conjure up delicious dishes with them.

That is why the sous-vide method is perfect for fish

With sous-vide cooking, the fish is vacuumed with spices in a vacuum bag and then cooked at a constant temperature in a water bath. Depending on the type of fish, the correct cooking temperature (core temperature) and cooking time are set on the sous-vide device. A sous-vide stick or sous-vide bath heats the water bath to the target temperature and maintains it completely automatically. The food is heated evenly on all sides in the water bath and cooks in its own juices. Not only is the full aroma maintained, but the perfect cooking point cannot be exceeded.

Cut	Cooking level	Temp.	Cooking time hh:mm
Trout fillet (2-3 cm)	Medium	47 °C	00:18
Salmon fillet (2-3 cm)	Medium	55 °C	00:15
Sole fillet (2-3 cm)		52 °C	00:15
Tuna fillet (2-3 cm)		58 °C	00:30
Tuna fillet (3-4 cm)		58 °C	00:45
Cod fillet (2-3 cm)	Medium	58 °C	00:25
Halibut fillet (2.5 cm)	Medium	59 °C	00:15
Cod fillet (2.5 cm)	Medium	60 °C	00:11
Turbot fillet (2.5cm)	Medium	52 °C	00:20

Sous-vide brown trout with carrots

1 brown trout
300 g carrots
1/2 leek
80g butter
30g strong cheddar
1 tbsp cherry plum jelly (alternatively redcurrant jelly)
Fresh chives
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp horseradish (optional)

1. Peel the carrots and cut into bite-sized pieces. Vacuum seal with butter, salt and pepper using a vacuum sealer and cook in a water bath at 75 °C for 50 minutes.
	2. Now scale and fillet the trout. Work the fillets so that only the back fillet remains on the skin. The rest can be used for something else.
3. Spread out a generous piece of cling film and place one of the fillets on it. Place 3-4 stalks of chives on top of the meat and the 2nd fillet on top of that so that the overhanging skin faces the back of the lower fillet. Roughly shape the roll with the overhanging skin, salt and pepper it, wrap it in the foil and twist it together until a compact roll is formed. Now vacuum seal the roll in a bag.
	4. As soon as the carrots have finished cooking, remove the bag from the water bath. Replace half of the water in the sous-vide container with lukewarm water and set the stick to 58 °C and 25 minutes. Once the target temperature is reached, place the vacuumed trout fillet in the water bath. Clean the leek and cut into small pieces. Place a pan on the cooker and heat it up. Cut open the bag filled with carrots and put all the contents into the hot pan. Add the leek and fry until the leek still has a slight firmness to it. Drain all the leeks and carrots through a sieve and retain the cooking liquid.
5. Pour the liquid back into the pan and heat until the water has evaporated and only butterfat remains. Once the trout roll has finished cooking, remove it from the bag and toss it in the pan for 2 minutes.
	6. Arrange the vegetables in the centre of the plates, take the fish from the pan, cut it in half and place on the vegetables. Spread the jelly on the trout roll, sprinkle with grated cheddar and garnish with a little horseradish if desired. Bon appétit!