Fish – How to stop fresh fish from falling apart while cooking

I used to have this fish sticking problem in my Aluminum wok.

The solution (accidentally discovered) was to put the fish in the wok only after the oil is hot enough.

Que: How do you decide whether the oil is hot enough?
Ans: Drop one Yellow Mustard Seed in the oil. If it cracks immediately then your oil is hot enough for the fish to be dropped in. If not, then you may like to wait for few more minutes and try the same with another mustard seed.

Yellow Mustard Seeds start cracking in very hot oil only as opposed to Cumin seeds which do turn brown in non-so-hot oil too.

Your fish didn't "bind" because cooking fish actually breaks down the muscle fibres. Some fish have denser flesh that holds up better to frying and grilling. Tuna and swordfish are two common examples. Other fish have a flakier flesh such as haddock and red snapper.

Haddock is a good fish for deep frying. You can also bake it to have it maintain its form. If you wish to fry it you need something thicker than a coating of flour to help it hold together. You can coat it in batter or do a flour/egg wash/corn meal coating. If you really want just a flour coating you should probably start by cutting the fillets in half.

In terms of equipment and technique you should have a wide fish spatula and, with the fish lying lengthwise across the pan, you flip the fish away from you. You can even stabilize it with your fingers as it rolls over.

Alternatively, you could pan fry a fish more suited to the application.