Monday, September 10, 2007

Halibut and Cornbread

Halibut, cheddar/jalapeno cornbread, beet greens, and a lime/butter/basil sauce. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it was a weird shaped piece of fish--very rectangular, not the standard fillet. But, that worked well for lightly searing all four sides, as opposed to the normal two, so it was a pleasant abnormality. The cornbread has jalapenos and cheddar cheese, which seems to be a pretty regular combination these days. The beet greens are the tops from the beets used in the prior post. As for the sauce, which you can barely see just to the left of the fish, it added a nice citrus flavor to the fish and greens. The whole thing was done with a 10 inch cast iron pan for the cornbread, and a small nonstick pan for the fish, greens, and sauce.

Halibut:
Ingredients:
- Halibut (Obviously.)
- Salt and pepper
- Butter and/or high heat oil (I used Ghee that someone from the community garden gave me. The stuff I've gotten from stores isn't nearly as good, so if I didn't have that I'd have used half Canola oil half butter.)
Method:
- Get nonstick pan hot and add the fat
- Season fish
- Sear each side of fish
- When cooked just less than your liking, place on plate in warm oven (200 degrees)

Greens:
Ingredients:
- Beet greens, slightly wet (Or Chard or Kale.)
- Garlic, minced
- Butter
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- After fish is cooked wipe out pan with paper towel
- Place pan back over medium heat and melt some butter
- Add damp greens and garlic
- Season, and stir to wilt greens
- Cover pan for a short minute
- Ucover, stir some more, and taste until it's how you like it
- Add to warm plate

Sauce:
Ingredients:
- Lime, cut in half
- Butter, small piece
- Basil, chopped
Method:
- Add butter and squeeze lime juice into pan on heat
- Add basil
- Cook for a bit being careful not to brown the butter or burn the lime juice
- When you put sauce on the plate and over the fish, leave basil behind (I did this with a spoon being careful to leave the basil shreds in the pan. As for leaving the basil behind, it gives up its flavor quickly.)

Cornbread:
- If you get this working before you start with the fish, everything should be ready at the same time
- I followed this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/109644
- It looks real soupy in the mixing bowl, but it works out in the cast iron pan in the oven
- Also, I didn't have buttermilk, and used 2% mixed with lemon juice instead (I think adding a small amount cream of tartar would have also worked.)
- I added small squares of smoked cheddar and roughly diced jalapeno, half before putting the pan into the oven, the other half after it set in the hot oven for about 10 min.
- If doing again, I'd probably shred, not cube, the cheese. The jalapeno was good in there raw, but I'd be curious to see how it would be if it had been sauteed or roasted.

That's the whole thing. It was a nice dinner.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I make a lime sauce almost the exact same way (except, of course, I just use lime juice)! Also, I don't add basil. Anyawy, I make it for salmon!
Love u!

The CFT said...

Sounds very good, although not all that similar. A bit of milk fat is good for the little one every now and then. Thanks for commenting.