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Buy fresh,
unfrozen fish for grilling whenever possible. Frozen fish loses about
3o percent of it's moisture as it thaws and is better suited to moist
cooking methods.
In their book Big Flavors of the Hot Sun
(William Morrow and Co., Inc.; 1994), Chris Schlesinger and John
Willoughby say, "Whichever way you prepare your seafood, you
will have a much better chance of success if you pay attention to
the thre basic rules for cooking seafood: start with fresh fish, start
with fresh fish, start with fresh fish."
How
do you know if the seafood you're buying is fresh? The best test of
freshness for all seafood is smell: If it smells like fish, don't
buy it. Other clues: Whole fish should have red or pink (rather than
grey) gills and clear
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slightly bulging
eyes; fillets, steaks, and shrimp should have shiny surfaces; clams
and oysters should have tightly closed shells.
An honest fishmonger
will tell you what is freshest on any given day. Allways trust his
or her suggestions and be willing to change your menu plans or try
something new.
Farm-raised fish
are often freshest because they can be brought to market more quickly
than fish caught in the wild. Also, because they're raised in a controlled
environment, they're less likely to be exposed to pollutants. Purists
may claim that farm raised fish don't taste the same as fish caught
at sea, but most cooks find that the greater freshness of fram raised
fish more than makes up for the taste difference.
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