Fish

Many of us are intimidated by fish for fear of encountering bones, cooking it too little or too much, or being sold something old. Once you know how to choose a fish and how long to cook it, your problems are few.

There are two basic types of fish: flatfish and round fish. Flatfish, like sole and flounder, usually have white skin on the bottom and gray skin on the top. They swim typically on the bottom of the sea, spread flat. Round fish are symmetrical and swim belly down.

Most fish comes in one of three forms: steaks, fillets, or whole fish. Steaks are made by cutting across the fish, fillets are removed from the spine and ribs of the fish by cutting parallel with the spine between the flesh and bone, and whole fish are cleaned and usually scaled. Flatfish fillets are sold as double fillets, which are made up of one-half of the whole fish and are two single fillets attached to each other with a thin membrane, or the double fillets are separated and sold as two single fillets.