During his appearance on Channel Seven’s breakfast show Sunrise, Curtis Stone let the audience in on one of his secrets for getting that perfect crispy skin when cooking fish.

The Aussie celebrity chef demonstrated how to cook a simple crispy skin Barramundi with an aromatic sauce, and one of the steps was completely unexpected.

Even Kochie and Natalie Barr were shocked!

Curtis Stone showcased how to get crispy skin on fish. Credit: Channel Seven.​

Stone revealed that the “key” step in order to get that perfect, crunchy skin is to place the slice of fish in a cold pan with oil. What a shocker, yes, a cold pan!

First, he sliced a few vertical cuts on the surface of the fish skin with a sharp knife and seasoned it with salt. Then he added a glug of olive oil on the cold non-stick pan.

Skin side down first, he placed the fish on the pan and started bringing in low heat.

When asked about his cold pan trick, he explained: “What that does is let the fish skin set on the bottom and it'll get very nice and crisp. Over the next five minutes, you're going to just gently increase that heat.”

“From cold, it takes about five minutes to start sizzling... and then you'll start seeing that fish skin really getting quite flat and crispy,” he added.

“You crank the heat eventually and you get it really nice and hot.”

After seeing the pan nice and sizzling, Stone flipped the fish, revealing its crusty, well-cooked skin. All that’s left is to cook the other side thoroughly.

Amazed at the little-known cooking trick, Kochie said: “I’ve never heard that before!” Fellow host Natalie Barr agreed and said: “Me neither!”

“I know, no one ever has,” replied the chef.

Curtis demonstrated how to cook a simple and delicious crispy skin Barramundi on the Sunrise show. Credit: Channel Seven.​

If you missed Curtis Stone’s cooking segment on Sunrise, worry not because we’re here to share with you the recipe for his famous crispy skin Barramundi with an aromatic sauce!

For the ingredients, you will need:

• 2 Barramundi fillets
• Olive oil
• Brown sugar
• Fish sauce
• Lime
• Shallots
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Green chilli
• Red chilli
• Rocket leaves
• Mint

Begin by preparing the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together a few pinches of brown sugar, a few tablespoons of fish sauce, and the juice from a lime. (You can adjust the amount for preference.)

Then chop up the aromatic chillies, garlic, ginger and shallots and put in the bowl with the sauce to marinate.

For the fish, begin by patting the Barramundi fillets dry with a paper towel. Then gently score the skin with a sharp knife, making small parallel cuts that slightly penetrate the skin but not the flesh, and season both sides with salt and pepper.

Here comes Stone’s trick: Add a glug of olive oil to a cold pan, place the fish skin side down and turn the heat on very low.

Gently increase the heat on the pan gradually over the next five minutes until you start to hear it sizzle.

Once you have increased your heat to full and the pan is nice and hot, flip the fish and cook the other side.

Prepare the plate by adding some of the aromatics and a few spoons of the sauce. Then place the cooked fish on top and garnish with some rocket and mint leaves.

And you’re done!

Let us know if you give this recipe a try, or whether you have any cooking tips to share with other members!

 

[Mel123321]

Ok, so all the world's Michelin starred chefs begin cooking fish skin-down on a hot pan to crisp the skin, and Kertis Stone, Mr Cheesy himself starts cooking fish with a cold pan, so we are supposed to take his technique as gospel? I DONT think so chum.

 

[KatKop]

I'm going to ask my personal chef to try this out as we love barra and have it at least once a week.