PotatoCrustedHalibut.jpg
So back around '08, my favorite local restaurant closed. It had only been open about two years, and I have loved nothing as much before or since. Bistro-style and called Tivoli, it was helmed by a husband-wife team of chef-owners. With feet firmly planted in French technique, the menu featured a few classics (Coq au Vin and Cassoulet were always there) and nightly specials epitomized seasonal opportunities and whatever seemed to inspire them.
I remember two dishes in particular. A thinly sliced rosy duck breast beautifully fanned around a tangy tangle of stir-fried cabbage, and the fresh Alaskan halibut I ordered the first night we ate there. It was wrapped in potato slices and either pan-cooked/baked or deep-fried at least to start, I couldn't tell which, and it was simply plated on a puddle of loose sauce that filled the plate. It was made of what my waiter described as regular peas, sugar snap peas and EVOO. Or at least that's what I remembered.
With that loose direction I set out to duplicate that dish yesterday with a fresh piece of Pacific Halibut*. Only rather than wrapping with slices, I wanted to do a latke-like crust I'd seen a picture of in the intervening years.
OMG. It was SOOO good. Honestly, I nailed it, and I will do this dish again and again in the future. A note re the sauce: I decided ahead of time that the peas should be lightly cooked, and that I'd start with just the sugar snap peas. Turns out, that was perfect, no regular peas needed.
*And re the halibut, Pacific halibut comes from warmer water than Alaska halibut. The fish are smaller, the flesh pinker and more oily, almost like sea bass. This is NOT an improvement, I prefer Alaskan by a mile. But it's what I had, and friends picked up a piece for me when they went to the fishmarket near the Lummi Reservation so I had no control over my piece. What I got was a triangular piece from right next to the collar, so some sinew and a bit of vertebrae had to be cut out resulting in three modest pieces of about 3 ounce, 3 ounce and 5 ounces respectively before trimming. This picture shows the two 3 ounce pieces which might have been the more interesting serving (Bob got it), as it had a greater potato-to-halibut ratio.
The result looks very complex, but a confident cook can get the whole thing on the table in 30 minutes. Here's the recipe, imprecise as usual.
The fish:
Enough for two
1 med Russet potato
1 egg
S&P
A bit of slivered green or grated white onion
The sauce:
About 40 trimmed sugar snap peas
Pea cooking water
EVOO
salt
Fat pinch of tarragon
white pepper
1) Start the sauce. Put the peas in an open dish with about 1/4 c of water, and microwave for two minutes. Dump them in a blender and add maybe 2 Tblsp of good-flavored EVOO. Liquify. Adjust liquidity, adding more water if needed, then season with salt, tarragon and white pepper. Whiz to incorporate.
2) Trim fish into equal portions, dredge in flour.
3) Grate potato, squeeze to remove released moisture, then mix with the remaining ingredients. Pat onto the fish--it will stick and hold together admirably--and brown in a non-stick skillet. Use medium heat to insure that the fish and potatoes arrive at the finish line together. If your fish is very thick, move the browned fish to a hot oven to bake the final steps.
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