Yes, I know a stupid question, but it comes from someone who has never eaten, let alone cooked, fish in her life! Why on health? 'Cause it's for my young lad who has had fairly major squits through the night and today.  His first small meal tomorrow will be boiled white rice (that I can do :-)), then tomorrow night I'm going to add some white fish - my breeder friend said get white fish (left to my own devices I would have got chicken, I know what to do with that). What do I do with it I asked. Stick it in the microwave she told me. Durrr ... do I add liquid? How long for?  Or should I boil it?  This was all over a phone with a nearly 400 mile distance between us and rubbish signal, hence lack of sensible instructions.

I asked the man on the fish counter if he'd got some whiting, no was the reply. I said I wanted white fish for my dog who'd been poorly. Collie he asked. Yes it is, I replied thinking he was clever. He looked at me as though I was a complete moron!!

Ok, it transpires he said coley not collie, and he was Polish and I wasn't quite geting the accent - I just thought he was jolly clever.

Anyway, if anyone's got some suggestions on how I cook this weird and wonderful fish to make a bland meal to sort my lad out they would be much appreciated!! :-D

Just like Cod, but meatier.

Whenever i cook fish for the dogs I cover it with  paper towel and microwave for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on size/number of fillets.

Oh I am of Polish descent (and bilingual).

Have you got a steamer?   If so, put it in the top part of the steamer, and steam for about 10 mins.

If you are using a microwave, then I'd suggest putting it on a plate, just covering it with microwaveable cling film and give it about 2-3 minutes.

If you have a steamer, this would be ideal.. If not.. place coley in a shallow lipped plate, (I use a casserold dish lid) place over a pan of boiling water, cover and simmer for around 20mins.. Ideally rice should be very well cooked,  as in overcooked and breaking up texture

ps.. I got your letter this morning, and DVD,, thank you :-)  will watch it over next few days.. and you did'nt know it was my Birthday today either, so a lovely little surprise pressie , thank you :-)

Barbara, I had a feeling you might be of Polish descent (I've looked at your website) and you're just boasting when it comes to the bilingual bit!!!  :-) Thanks for method though!

Hi Kay, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Sadly it's the young man that's had the activity this week that's had diarrohea.  I'm hoping it's down to the fact that I got totally mixed up with their dinners last night ... he doesn't do wheat gluten free (and only ate about half of it), but that's what he got. His partner in crime got his wheat based meal ... it's had no adverse affect on her at all!

No steamer, looking after my friend's farm and can't find anything resembling one of those.  I've got one at home though!

Hi Lokis mum, thank you.  No steamer, so it's down to the microwave tomorrow.  Only had the guts to get half a fillet! 

I know fish is soooo good for you.  All my dogs eat far better than I do!

Just stick it in a pan of water, bring to boil and simmer for 1-2 mins then drain. We all had mash & peas & haddock for tea tonight,  yum-yum. well Zuma just had some haddock with his complete
ps check carefully for any little bones left in after filleting.

ps check carefully for any little bones left in after filleting.

Good point, thank you and will do.

> and you're just boasting when it comes to the bilingual bit!!! 

Nope, learnt the Polish first, and didn't know a word of English until I started school.  Have managed to stay pretty fluent as have a lot of family and friends who are Polish, and went over there every year as a kid and a few times since.

Memories as a 12 year old oldest child, with Mum in hospital after having fifth child Coley was one of the things I knew how to cook.

I descaled it with the edge of a knife, then dipped it in seasoned flour, egg and breadcrumbs and shallow fried until golden brown.

My other dishes were homemade burgers and roast chicken.

Well, bilingual impresses me. I've got a smattering of French, Italian and Spanish, but I can't say anything useful in any of them! It's just basic holiday stuff. Would love to have the head or patience, or whatever it is, for languages.

Now you've worried me about the coley ... do I need to descale it?  Will my dog mind if it isn't?!!  Oh dear. I refused to eat fish as a child, then made my parent's life hell by becoming a vegetarian at 8, then sort of went back to meat by 30, but never, ever done fish. I do feel a bit of a dim wit when it comes to fish, and in fact most meat if I'm honest.

These days it will have been descaled, at least all the fish I see nowadays is.

When I used to buy it was from the Wet fish shop in our street, don't see many of those anymore.

If the fish is really freaking you out apart from buying some from sainsburys frozen basics white fish and popping in the microwave with splash of water for a couple minites until soft and flaky I would use chicken if its for poorly tums.

I agree with Furriefriends, I use Sainsbury's basics, I think it's about £1.94 for the bag, they all seem to stock it and it has lots of different sized fillets. I cook it as described too.
I always check it for bones but have very rarely ever found any.

Well, the fish is cooked and I hope he appreciates it!  We did have bones, quite a few vicious looking ones, and scales ... lots of them, now mostly stuck to the kitchen walls!  I assume there's a knack to de-scaling fish :-)  Anyway, I will cook it again with my new found knowledge, next time I'll cook scales an' all and then just flake the fish off the skin once cooked, I think that seems an easy option.  I had an excellent supervisor, she checked me at every stage, though she was a bit bemused by the flying fish scales, but she seemed to approve at the taste testing stage.

Anyway, thanks folks for the cookery lesson.

Nope, not freaked out ... if not freaked out at cooking liver bread (the way I do it we get to liver mush, and I mean mush, before the bread stage) nowt will freak me out :-D

I give my dogs raw fish..........
Karen :)

eta; heads, eyes the lot!

Didn't fancy giving him raw 'cause it was to sort an upset tummy, but I did wonder if under normal circumstances the scales would taste yummy!!  That's yummy to the dogs I hasten to add, I do not think they'd taste yummy to me, but I'm not going to try to find out ;-)

Well, the rice and fish went down a real treat ... guess it's fish for their supper again another time!

Must admit I too found white fish (cheated it was Lidl's Pollock, already descaled and frozen) with Round Pudding Rice (much starchier), was excellent when Kizi had a poor tum recently

OOh, pudding rice ... I used basmati!! Will try the puddin' rice next time.  I might look at frozen fish, I like the sound of descaled. I'm still trying to get fish scales off the wall, which wouldn't be so bad but it's not my wall!!  Certainly the fish has proved a BIG hit!

The trick with the descaling is the angle you hold the knife ;)

I see I'm going to have to pay more attention to the cookery programmes now! I usually switch off when fish dishes come on.

> The trick with the descaling is the angle you hold the knife

The best trick of all, is asking the fishmonger to do it for you... tee hee ;)

That's a really useful suggestion after I've spent all afternoon getting fish scales of my friend's wall!! :-D

best method is buy iceland frozen white fish fillets.  dirt cheap, come ready de-scaled, mostly de-boned and have cooking instructions on bag!

lidls do a  bag of frozen coley very good and cheap too