The Best Butter Poached Puffer Fish Recipe
This Butter Poached Puffer Fish Recipe came after a fun family fishing trip to Tampa.BUTTER POACHINGButter Poaching is a cooking technique that involves gently cooking your fish in a bath of melted butter, resulting in a dish that is rich, decadent, and utterly delicious. This melt-in-your-mouth puffer fish recipe is a great way to impress dinner guests or simply treat yourself to a restaurant-quality meal at home.FISHING TAMPA BAYEvery year I return to Tampa, Florida to do a little fishing and eat Cuban sandwiches. My mom grew up just a few minutes from Lowry Park Zoo and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Stadium. We still have the house she grew up in, so I've taken full advantage and escaped the doldrums of North Dakota winters once or twice a year for the last 25 years. This year, my wife and 7-year-old daughter came with me on a group fishing charter. I've never been able to afford a private charter, and the social aspect of the "party boat" atmosphere of dozens of other anglers trying to catch a nice grouper has always appealed to me. The girls and I had a great time on our 4-hour adventure, and among the wide variety of fish we caught that morning, the Puffer Fish was our daughter's favorite – and they are delicious!ARE PUFFER FISH POISONOUS?"Wait! Aren't Puffer Fish poisonous!" The Puffer Fish tails are perfectly safe to eat if cleaned properly. I'm all for nose-to-tail eating, but when it comes to a Puffer Fish, you need to STAY AWAY from the liver and the gonads (ovaries and testes) which contain the toxin that can make you very sick. Freezing and thawing of a fish that is not properly cleaned right away can cause the toxins to migrate to the flesh of the fish that you plan to eat. But cleaning a Puffer Fish properly is a very simple process, and the charter boat captains and deckhands I fish with in Clearwater Beach are great at handling the fish properly when they clean them for me in exchange for a nice tip.I hung out with Hank Shaw a few weeks ago (author of the book, "Hook, Line, and Supper"), and I told him about my mass array of Puffer Fish I had brought home from Florida that were now in my freezer. He recommended frying them or butter-poaching. I opted for the butter-poaching and developed this recipe that takes 15 minutes from start to finish and rivals anything I've had at a seafood restaurant. The texture and taste are remarkable. I served this puffer fish recipe to my wife with a light salad to make us feel better about ourselves for using so much butter in a recipe.Please make sure you follow the instructions and use unsalted butter. You don't want to end up with a pile of salty, inedible fish. You can always sprinkle more salt on your fish if you aren't happy with my puffer fish recipe after you try a few bites.If you make this puffer fish recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #wildgameandfishDid you enjoy this Butter Poached Puffer Fish Recipe? Be sure to leave a 5-star rating RIGHT HERE!
Ingredients
- 1 pound Puffer Fish tails (properly cleaned)
- salt
- black pepper
- 3 sticks unsalted butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
- Place the butter and 3/4 cups water in an 8-inch x 8-inch baking dish and place in the oven for about 5 minutes until the butter is completely melted.
- Meanwhile, pat the fish dry with a paper towel and then season on all sides with salt and pepper.
- Return the baking dish to the oven and poach the fish for about 8 minutes until the center reaches 145 degrees F on an instant-read meat thermometer.
- Remove the fish from the butter and serve immediately with roasted vegetables or a salad.
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