First off, I have to go ahead and say that YouTube is amazing. I love it. I love it so much. I watch YouTube videos all the time, whether it’s videos of makeup tutorials and reviews, a cooking demo or something just for the sole purpose of making me laugh. I tend to find myself YouTubing more than reaching for the TV remote these days, which is impressive to me.
That being said, the other day when we were at the grocery store standing in front of the fish counter, my husband and I both spotted the whole tilapias all lined up, pretty as can be. (YouTube will make sense later. I have a point, I promise.) First thought: I had no idea Tilapias (Tilapias? Tilapia? What’s the plural here?) were black. I had no idea they were so… approachable. AND CHEAP!!! Only $2.59/lb?! Whereas I could get the same fish, filleted for $6.59/lb. I realized then and there I was paying for labor and I decided I wanted to cut out the middleman.
Me: “Is it hard to filet a fish?”
Fish Counter Man: “Well, for me it isn’t…”
Me: After a period of awkward silence, “Well… Duh. Will it be hard FOR ME to filet a fish?”
Fish Counter Man: “It’s actually pretty easy. Let me show you.”
So he showed me and frankly, it looked easy as pie. I can do this. I can do this? I can do this! Michael and I both got pretty excited at the thought of filleting our very own fish, so we ended up getting two whole tilapias and went on our way to finish shopping for all that we needed, including a sharp boning knife, since we weren’t sure if we had one or not.
When it came time to do the actual filet process, I decided to take it to YouTube. See? That’s where I was going with the whole YouTube entry there. Makes sense now, doesn’t it? I mean, YouTube has EVERYTHING you’d EVER WANT, including videos on how to filet a Tilapia.
Luckily, we were able to skip the step on gutting the fish. Phew.
The rest of the video I found was ultra helpful, easy to follow and resulted in me nearly-perfectly filleting my Tilapia.
My husband’s fish didn’t come out as beautiful as mine, but hey, what can I say?
I’m just really good at filleting fish… I’m pretty much a professional.
Just kidding. His was awesome too. And I couldn’t wait to cook them up for dinner. I didn’t quiiiiiiiiite know what exactly I was going to do with them, but it was going to be good.
And later in the day when I got kind of bored and made guacamole, it hit me! Fish tacos, of course!
So when dinnertime rounded the corner, I gave the fish a quick coat of olive oil, a squeeze of orange, some salt and HEB’s Coastal Blend seasoning. I made sure the seasoning and oil made it to the skin side too, and got a flat pan nice and hot.
I placed the fish skin side down like they show in all the fancy-shmancy cooking shows on TV, and let it get all nice and crispy and hot. After only a couple minutes, maybe 3, I flipped the fish and let the other side get all nice and golden brown.
The house smelled awesome, and when the fish was nearing completion, another few minutes, I warmed up some tortillas, cut up some lettuce, opened and stirred my guacamole and got some salsa out. Perfect!
What a delicious meal. The fish was cooked perfectly, if I do say so myself, and the flavors were so delicate and mild, just like the texture. Michael and I were extremely pleased with how our fish turned out, and we only managed to get 3 or 4 bones out of all four filets that we cut! We did pretty well for first timers, and after this experience, I’m pretty confident that we’ll be purchasing whole fish whenever possible, rather than just the filets, if not for the price tag alone! Plus, YouTube makes everything easier.
Have you ever filleted a fish? What’s the coolest thing or most helpful thing you learned from YouTube?
Here’s the video I used to learn my fish cutting skillz:
