Introduction: Many people know that adding wine when cooking fish helps to remove the fishy smell, enhance the umami flavor, sterilize and disinfect, and promote the production of amino acids, making the nutrients in the fish more easily absorbed. In fact, besides the well-known cooking wine, many other types of wine can be used in cooking. Different wines for different fish result in better flavor and enhanced nutrition.
For steamed, boiled, and sweet and sour fish, use yellow wine. Before making steamed fish, boiled fish, or sweet and sour fish, marinate the fish with refined salt, yellow wine, and black pepper to let the flavors infuse. During the marinating process, yellow wine better preserves the fresh flavor of the fish, allows salty and sweet flavors to fully penetrate, and also removes the fishy smell during cooking.
Cooking wine is a condiment made by blending and processing yellow wine as its base. In cooking, yellow wine and cooking wine can be used interchangeably, but cooking wine should not be consumed as a beverage.
For stewing fish to enhance its aroma, use beer. Among alcoholic beverages, beer is the king of aroma enhancers. The enzymes in beer can break down the protein in the meat into amino acids, making the fish more tender and delicious. After preparing the fish, add an appropriate amount of beer to stew it; or first soak the fish in beer for 10 minutes, then remove it, season it, and stew it, adding a small amount of beer again during the stewing process.
White wine can be used for frozen fish. White wine is the most effective for removing off-flavors. Frozen fish like ribbon fish are not very fresh and have a strong odor. Using white wine to marinate them is necessary to better remove the fishy smell.
For grilled and fried fish, use red wine. Adding red wine to grilled fish not only enhances its aroma and freshness but also adds a beautiful color, making it more appealing in appearance, aroma, and taste. You can sprinkle an appropriate amount of red wine during the grilling process. After the alcohol evaporates, the fishy smell is gone, and the wine aroma has infused into the fish. You can also make a sauce with red wine and soak the fish in it for about 20 minutes before grilling.
Fried fish is delicious, but it loses a lot of its nutritional value. Recently, an article on the US "WebMD" pointed out that adding red wine when frying fish not only makes it more delicious but also reduces the loss of nutrients. You can marinate the fish in red wine before frying, and when the fish is about 50% cooked, drizzle 2 spoonfuls of red wine over it. (By Hyo Korea, a special gold medal winner at the World Culinary Competition)