Halibut with French Herbs

Tarragon, it turns out, is a game changer. Apparently you can chop it up with some parsley and chives and use it to make light-yet-buttery, simple-yet-flavorful, swooningly delicious french fare. Who knew? (Probably the French. But I didn't. You would think, in a fair world, that some people would get life-altering croissants and others would get tarragon, but no, the French got both. Until now. Or maybe it was years ago, when non-French people noticed tarragon but didn't tell me. Regardless, if you need me, I'll be over here, gazing adoringly at my new leafy green obsession.)

Ingredients

½ - ¾ lbs wild halibut (enough for two)

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Stone ground whole wheat flour

2 tbsp Meyer lemon juice

1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp white wine

1 ½ tbsp butter

1 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained

1 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh tarragon

2 tbsp chopped chives

2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

(Goes well over black Forbidden rice—sauté a little chopped shallot until soft, then add the rice and water and cook according to package directions.)

Sprinkle the halibut on both sides with kosher salt and a little freshly ground black pepper, then lightly flour on both sides. Combine the lemon juice, olive oil, and white wine in a small dish.

Heat a nonstick or ceramic pan over medium heat. Drizzle lightly with olive oil, then add the fish to the pan and fry for a few minutes on each side, until just before the inside is cooked through (I always cut into the middle after it's lightly browned on both sides to get a sense of how much longer it has to cook...nobody will ever know if you serve it with the cut face down or with sauce over the top.) 

When the fish is almost but not quite cooked through, serve immediately over rice (it will keep cooking on the plate from the heat of the rice).

Immediately after serving the fish, replace the pan over medium-low heat. Add the butter, let it melt, then add the lemon-wine mixture. Wait 10 seconds for the alcohol to steam off, then add the capers and a pinch of salt, and turn off the heat. Add the herbs, stir a couple times, then spoon over the fish.

Serve immediately.

Serves 2. Pairs very well with sautéed leeks and baby kale and a French white.

Moonfish with Coconut Milk, Zucchini, and Chard

Coconut milk, ginger, and basil give this dish a Thai flair. You can use any fatty, mild white fish, or substitute chicken or tofu if you prefer. Serve over steamed rice cooked with a little sauteed shallot, and pair with a glass of Torrontes or Viognier.

Ingredients
Olive oil
8-10 oz moonfish (opah) or another fatty, mild white fish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small zucchini, sliced lengthwise into thirds and then cut crosswise into strips
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, sliced
15  fresh basil leaves
2 handfuls young chard, beet greens, or spinach, sliced crosswise into ribbons
5-6 oz light coconut milk
1 tsp onion blossoms or one scallion, white and light green parts, thinly sliced

Rub each side of the fish with a pinch of ginger, and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. (You can cut it into cubes or leave it as a whole steak—whichever you prefer. Cubes will cook much more quickly, and will retain less of their own moisture but absorb more of the sauce. We left ours whole, just because it's easier.)

Heat a glug of olive oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. When hot, add the zucchini and stir a few times, then saute, stirring once or twice a minute, until it starts to turn golden brown in a few places. Add the garlic and a pinch of ginger and saute for a minute more, then add the basil leaves and saute for 10 seconds or until they have just wilted. Decant into a bowl and set aside.

Replace the pan over the heat and add another glug of olive oil. Add the fish and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until golden brown on the bottom, then flip and cook the other side until golden as well (if your fish is cubed, just brown one side and then skip to the next step).

Add the greens to the pan, sprinkle them with salt, and pour the coconut milk over the top of everything. Cover immediately, turn the heat down to medium-low, and steam for a minute or so until the greens start to wilt.

Uncover the pan, scatter the ginger over the greens, and stir to combine. Replace the cover and simmer until the fish is very nearly cooked through. (I can't tell with moonfish unless I cut it in half at some point to see how pink it still is in the middle, which is the other reason I like leaving it as one whole piece to start with...I end up cutting it in half or quarters by the time I'm done checking it.)

Add the zucchini back into the pan, sprinkle with the onion blossoms or scallion, and cook for about 30 seconds to reheat, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, and serve immediately over rice.

Serves 2.

Lemonless Halibut

We grabbed some halibut last night from our co-op to throw together a quick dinner, but forgot about lemon entirely until it was too late.

Usually, you see, there are lemons in the fruit drawer. But last night, when we opened the fruit drawer, and looked inside all full of hope and expectation, there were not. There was parsley in the garden (though only just, because it keeps attempting to bolt), but absolutely no lemons in the fridge. Not even when we closed the fruit drawer in confusion, shut the door of the fridge, paused, opened it, and checked again. Still no lemons. None at all.

Here is what we decided to do about it. You could garnish this dish with lemon wedges...I'm sure they would only make it better...but you don't (as we stated proudly last night in a burst of sophisticated articulation) need no stinkin lemons to make it good.

Ingredients
1 cup black forbidden rice, simmered with a bit of chopped shallot for 25 minutes in 1 1/4 cups water (or sub brown rice)
0.6 lbs fresh wild halibut
1/4 cup stone ground whole wheat flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium clove garlic, pressed
6 Castelvetrano olives, pitted, halved lengthwise, and sliced (or sub another kind of unpickled green olive)
1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
Slosh white wine

Liberally sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper, then dredge in the flour. Heat a glug of olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat, then add the fish skin-side down and pan fry until golden on the bottom.

In a small pan, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and turn the heat down to medium low. Simmer for 20-30 seconds until it softens, then add the olives and parsley. Stir a few times, then add a slosh or two of wine and a pinch of salt. Simmer until the liquid is reduced by about half (3 minutes or so), then turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, flip the fish and continue cooking until golden brown on both sides (or all sides, if it's thick enough to cook on four sides) and until it's almost but not quite cooked through. Serve immediately over a bed of rice (it will finish cooking as it sits), and spoon the sauce over the fish and a little over the rice as well.

Serves 2, with a couple of side vegetables (like a big bunch of roasted Red Russian kale and a salad).

Halibut with Ginger and Shiitake Mushrooms

There may be a glitch in the matrix.

The thing is, after repeatedly sampling this halibut recipe, I can say in no uncertain terms that it's the best halibut ever (on dramatic days, I have been known to generalize beyond halibut to all fish, hot foods, or objects in the solar system). But then last night, for inexplicable reasons, I made this new recipe instead. And it...here's where the glitch comes in...it also seems to be the best halibut ever.

Obviously, a philosophical conundrum such as this can only be resolved through tireless and repeated empirical investigation. I'll get back to you when I've gotten to the bottom of it (or to the bottom of the Co-op's fish supply, whichever comes first). In the meantime, feel free to engage in your own scientific tests -- for the benefit of humankind, of course, and for the benefit of dinner.

Serve over brown or black rice, and pair with some sort of vegetable. This recipe is fairly simple and quick, as long as you remember to start the rice ahead of time.


Ingredients
1/2 - 2/3 lbs halibut (enough for two)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 scallions, white and light green parts, sliced
2 medium cloves garlic, chopped
Several thin slices ginger, julienned (nearly twice as much ginger as garlic, volume-wise)
12-15 shiitake mushrooms, brushed clean, stems removed, and cut in half
(or sliced in thirds, if especially large)
3 oz sake (rice wine)
Lemon wedges or halves

Sprinkle the fish with salt and black pepper, then dredge in the flour.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, drizzle the bottom lightly with olive oil, then add the fish. Pan fry for several minutes until golden brown on the bottom, then flip. (If you've cut the piece of fish in half already and it's fairly thick, you may be able to brown all four sides. If not, turn the heat down a bit so that the fish can cook through before the bottom gets too dark.)

After you've flipped the fish, heat a glug of olive oil in another pan over medium heat (or, if you're lazy like me and have a big enough pan, push the fish to the side of the first pan and do this on the other side while it cooks). Add the ginger and scallions, stir a few times, then add the garlic and turn the heat down just a bit. Saute for 15-20 seconds, then add the mushrooms and stir to coat. Continue cooking the mushrooms, stirring occasionally and without crowding them, until they start to lightly brown.

Just before the fish is cooked through, remove it from the pan and set aside.

Sprinkle the mushrooms with a pinch of salt, stir, then add the sake and turn off the heat. Stir a few times as the sake simmers. Serve the fish over rice, and spoon the sauce over the top. Garnish with a generous wedge of lemon, and serve hot.

Serves 2.

Pan-Roasted Halibut with Smoked Bacon and Lemon

Fish and I have a long and complicated history. Long ago, when I was young...last weekend, to be precise...I would have summarized our relationship as follows: (1) Raw fish is wonderful (except sea urchin "roe," which I vote we put in a separate category devoted to parts of animals I'd rather not think about). (2) Cooked fish is meh (technical culinary term; exceptions include salmon when we cook it or when ordered at Alouette; trout when my mom cooks it; unagi in good sushi restaurants). (3) Shellfish get more complicated and are not included in this summary in the interest of reader sanity.

As of last weekend, however, my carefully ordered fish worldview has been shattered, and it's just the latest in a long list of overturned culinary preconceptions. Could it be that my once extensive and carefully cataloged collection of disliked foods were all over-generalizations? That it's just a matter of finding the right way to cook something?

In any event, I now love halibut. LOVE halibut. At least when it's made like this (loosely adapted from here).

Serve this with a black Forbidden rice pilaf (Heat a little olive oil in a pot over medium heat. Add a shallot, chopped, and saute until soft, then add the rice and stir to coat the grains. Stir in 1 1/4 cups vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer gently for 20-25 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender).

Ingredients
2 halibut fillets
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup stone ground whole wheat flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Ñora pepper (optional)
Olive oil
2/3 to 1 strip Niman Ranch applewood smoked bacon, sliced crosswise into strips
1/2 cup white wine
Juice of a little over half a Meyer lemon
1-2 tsp sliced castelvetrano olives (cured with salt rather than pickled, and therefore an olive even an olive-hater can love...available at Whole Foods and the Sacramento Co-op)
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
2 tbsp pastured butter

About ten minutes before you need it, take the fish out of the fridge so that it's cool rather than cold when you start to cook it. Mix together the flours, 1/2 tsp salt, and peppers to taste in a shallow bowl. Coat the fish on all sides with the flour mixture just before you start cooking.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until the pieces start to turn golden brown along the edges, lowering the heat a little if needed. Remove with a slotted spoon and let dry on a paper towel. Pour out most, but not all, of the bacon grease, and return the pan to the flame.

Add a couple tablespoons of olive oil, stir, and increase the heat back to medium. Set the fish in the pan skin side down. Jostle the pan a bit to make sure they don't stick, and sprinkle the tops with a pinch of salt and a little extra black pepper. Let sizzle for 4 minutes or until lightly golden along the edges, then flip gently with a spatula or flat nonstick tongs. Cook for another 3-4 minutes or until golden brown, then flip back. When the fish is almost done, it may fall open a bit along a seam. The inside should be nearly cooked through, with a little bit of the center still translucent. Remove the fish from the pan immediately—it will cook through the rest of the way from its own heat.

Add the wine, lemon juice, butter, and 1 tbsp olive oil to the pan and bring to a strong simmer. Cook for about a minute, then add the olives and most but not all of the parsley. Continue to simmer for another couple minutes until the sauce is reduced and somewhat thickened. Turn off the heat, and add the bacon to the sauce to reheat.

Serve the fish over black rice, spoon the sauce liberally over both, and sprinkle with a little parsley and a bit of black pepper if desired. Pairs very, very well with roasted kale and a glass of Torrontés (like Urano's Torrontés from Mendoza, Argentina, available at BevMo).

Serves 2.