halibut Archives - Mind in the Butter

Recently, my mom gave me about a dozen rosemary branches from her garden. It was a lot of herb and I didn’t want it to go to waste, so I made this Rosemary Skewered Halibut. Rosemary is an intensely woody and lemony herb that I normally associate with meats, but Halibut is a pretty bland and trim fish, so the intensity of the rosemary actually worked quite nicely. The halibut can easily be substituted for chicken, red meat, lamb or tuna, and since it’s almost summer, these skewers would be happiest when cooked on the grill.

The secret to this dish is marinating the halibut for at least 1 hour beforehand in a really intense herb blend. I tossed some fresh thyme, seasoned salt, paprika, garlic, Italian seasoning, herbs de provence, an herb mix containing dried chervil, parsley and coriander (pretty much the entire spice rack) and olive oil in a medium sized glass bowl and let it hang on the counter for about 10 minutes. If you try this recipe, the marinade should be almost pasty and super intense in flavor.

While the marinade rested, I rinsed and pat dry a beautiful filet of halibut and cubed it into 1 inch chunks, added it to the marinade bowl and chilled it for 1 hour.

I then heated the oven to 475 and lined a cookie sheet with tin foil and olive oil. With an entire stalk of rosemary, I laced 3-4 cubes of halibut down the rosemary from the bottom up and laid them on the cookie sheet so no halibut cubes were touching, then baked them for about 8-10 minutes until they were golden brown (they go fast, so keep on eye on them so they don’t over cook). Note: the rosemary edges will burn at this high heat. This is fine, but just have someone ready to do the “dish towel helicopter” under the smoke detector just in case.

I served the skewers with a kale salad and mushroom polenta and I can’t wait to get my hands on more fresh rosemary so I can do this again….

This week, Stingray and I made use of two snow-white halibut fillets we had in the freezer (fate of the second fillet to be revealed tomorrow). I was lucky enough to have him make me this outrageous fried fish sandwich for Sunday supper. Despite having a reputation for being the ultimate convenience food, sandwiches are actually a luxury dinner item at our house. They often require ingredients that we don’t keep on file (bread and sliced cheeses), and require a keen attention to detail to make them extra tasty (hence why he cooked and I didn’t). Stingray did a basic beer batter for the fish, with classic accompaniments: lettuce, tomato, sliced cheese. He hit it out of the park by buttering and toasting both sides of the bun before serving. I was feeling kind of useless in the kitchen, so my contribution was a dill aioli and some garlic truffle fries.

For the batter:

1 bottle lager
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
Dash cayenne pepper
1 tsp seasoned salt
1 tsp fish seasoning
¾ cup all-purpose flour, plus ½ cup
Canola or vegetable oil

1. In a large bowl, mix together the beer, baking powder, pepper, cayenne pepper, seasoning and salt. Whisk in the flour until the mixture resembles thin pancake batter, add more flour if needed.
2. Fill a medium-sized pan with about a ½ inch of oil and heat over medium-high until it begins to shimmer. Season the halibut, dredge lightly in the ½ cup of flour (helps the batter to stick), dip it into the batter, and cook the fish until crispy and flaky, 4 to 6 minutes, flipping halfway through. Remove the fillets and rest on paper towel lined plate, pat gently to coax away excess oil.

For the aioli:

3/4 cup mayonnaise
1-2 crushed cloves garlic
1 lemon (juice and zest)
1/2 cup dill, finely chopped
s/p to taste
2 T olive oil

Add all ingredients to food processor, blend until smooth. Taste, and adjust flavors as you like. Smear on toasted buttered buns before stacking fish fillet, cheese, tomato, lettuce.

Garlic Truffle Fries

2 blemish-free Russet potatoes
4 cloves garlic
olive oil
4 T finely chopped parseley
truffle salt
truffle oil
s/p to taste

1. Place cookie sheet in oven and crank to 400. Slice potatoes into long wedges. In a large bowl, coat potato wedges liberally with olive oil. Mix in 2 cloves crushed garlic, 2T parsley, salt and pepper.
2. Distribute potatoes onto hot cookie sheet and bake undisturbed for at least 15 mins before flipping. Bake for another 15 minutes or until tender and crispy.
3. Before serving, gently toss with remaining 2 cloves of crushed garlic and 2 T parsley, a drizzle of truffle oil and several pinches of truffle salt. Serve and enjoy.