Christmas Halibut

We put an order in for a halibut from a well known food store and when we went to collect it on 23rd December it wasn't available. This despite being informed the day before that our order was ready for collection and so on. In fact they failed to deliver four of the nine items we ordered but let's not go there right now.

So at 14:00 the day before Christmas Eve, our Christmas Eve meal had gotten lost in the ether. There was only one thing to do, of course. To head off to our local fish man to see what he had available at such a late hour. We weren't optimistic and i went through a number of fishy recipes in my head as we walked there. Red Mullet, sea bass, hake, huss. It didn't even cross my mind that he might have halibut.

As it was, he had all of the above and more and we came away with some large halibut steaks and some gravadlax and some smoked octopus. We had already bought samphire for the halibut recipe the day before from him.

The learning from this is that we should have gone to him first and not ordered through the corporate. It worked out cheaper. It felt like a better experience and there was a little of that human banter that goes on that elevates the whole sales transaction. With hindsight, I'm not really sure why we didn't. I think it was to make the meal less of a cook and more of a presentation. Mistake noted!

So the recipe was for halibut with a beurre noisette sauce with capers, served simply with new potatoes, carrots and samphire.

Ingredients (for two persons)

• 2 large halibut steaks ( about 170g each nice and thick)

• 1 tbsp avocado oil

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter

• 2 tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

• 1 tbsp capers

• 1 tbsp of herbs eg parsley if adding (we didn't use any)

• salt and pepper to taste

Before you start, it is worth pointing out that this is a last minute cook for the fish and so you need to have at least your potatoes and carrots pretty close to ready by the time you start on the fish. If the fish has been frozen, make sure that it has time to thaw properly. The samphire is dropped in boiling water for a few minutes to blanche and so the timing of that is important. Its a great vegetable but it wants to retain a crunch to it.

Method

Remove the skin carefully from the halibut if any is present then pat dry using kitchen towel. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, both sides.

Put the avocado oil into your pan and bring to heat. Avocado is used here because it cooks hot. When ready, carefully lay the two pieces of fish in the pan and leave alone. Allow about 4 minutes for a streak one inch thick and adjust time to thickness as appropriate. This will enable a golden crust to form on the surface and you can see the fish cooking as the translucency starts to recede from the pan upwards. After 4 minutes carefully turn over the fish and continue keeping an eye on it. When the flesh is no longer translucent, it is cooked. remove from pan and set aside. I had a heated plate ready to keep it warm.

The image shows the one steak with the crust having just been turned; the other steak is translucent on the top and is about to be turned.

To make the beurre noisette sauce, add the butter to the pan and allow it to foam; then it will start to go a golden colour and turn off the heat. Add the lemon juice and the capers and herbs if using and stir.

Done.

Assemble plate and serve.

Observations

It is very easy to overcook the fish and that would be a disaster. the perfect measure in my opion ids tp watch the colour of the streak on the side and you klnow it's done when it is opaque. Dont forget to turn it half way though. The other thing is to watch the pan heat so that you don't burn the fish and whatever you do don't move it before you turn it unless you want to leave bits stuck to the pan.

With the beurre noisette, keep an eye on the colour of the butter after it stops foaming. The foam will disappear and then the liquid will go golden brown. At this point take it off the heat unless you really want burned (spoiled) butter!

Dont overcook the samphire. Blanche it.