Pan-Seared Halibut
Chef: Jeffrey Jew
More Last Chance Kitchen Recipes:
Milk-Fed Grilled Squab Over Port Wine Sauce - Carla Pellegrino
Canlis Salad - Chrissy Camba
Shrimp Chowder - Kuniko Yagi
Ingredients
Halibut
olive oil
4 oz. halibut
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons butter
1 sprig thyme
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 pound fresh morel mushrooms, cleaned and halved
1/4 pound English peas
1 tablespoon finely diced shallots
1 teaspoon finely diced garlic
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup sherry
1/4 cup white wine
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 cup heavy cream
extra virgin olive oil, to taste
Harissa paste
1 teaspoon preserved lemon, finely chopped
micro greens - bulls blood or arugula
Harissa
4
dried guajillo chilies, stemmed and seeded
4 dried New Mexico chilies, stemmed and seeded
1⁄4 teaspoon caraway seeds
1⁄4 teaspoon coriander seeds
1⁄4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon dried mint leaves
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cloves garlic
juice of 1 lemon
Preserved Lemons
2.5 pounds Meyer lemons
1/2 cup sea salt
2 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
Directions
Halibut
1.) Slice morel
mushrooms in half and stir in cold water with your fingers to clean dirt from
the mushrooms. You might have to do this more than once to make sure all
the grit is washed from the mushroom. Reserve.
2.) In a sauté pan over medium high heat, heat olive oil. Add
morel mushrooms, season with salt and pepper to taste, and let cook for two to
three minutes before stirring. Stir mushrooms, and cook another three
minutes.
3.) Deglaze pan with half the white wine and half the sherry.
Let reduce, and add shallots and garlic, stirring constantly.
4.) Add peas, and deglaze pan with the remaining wine and sherry.
When the mixture has a syrupy consistency, add cream, and reduce to
medium low heat. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes or until the mixture has thickened.
If the mixture has thickened too much, add a little vegetable stock or
water to loosen mixture.
5.) Taste, and season with salt and pepper if necessary.
While the mushroom mixture is reducing, heat a sauté pan over
medium high heat.
6.) Season halibut with salt and pepper, and place in hot pan. Cook
halibut 2 - 3 minutes per side. When the fish is almost finished cooking add butter and thyme to
pan, and baste fish with butter for 1 minute over low heat. Take fish
from hot pan and let rest one minute.
In a small bowl lightly dress micro greens, and preserved lemon
with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
To plate, start with morel mushroom mixture, top with halibut, and finish with micro greens. Add drops of olive oil, and harissa around plate.
Harissa
1.) Preheat oven
to 350 degrees. Put chilies into a sauté pan and toast in oven for three
minutes.
2.) Heat caraway, coriander, and cumin in a pan over medium heat.
Toast spices in pan, tossing constantly, until very fragrant, about three
minutes.
3.) Transfer spices to a grinder with the mint and grind, and add to a
food processor with chilies.
4.) Puree mixture while adding oil, salt, garlic, and lemon.
Puree into a paste-like mixture. Keep in a jar in
refrigerator.
Preserved Lemons
1.) Trim the
ends off lemons, and quarter.
2.) Sprinkle
the interior of the lemons with salt then layer in a jar. Sprinkle
with sea salt then mash with a wooden spoon or dowel until the rinds of
the lemon begin to soften and until all the lemons fill the jar and
rest below the level of the brine. Add cloves and cinnamon sticks.
3.) Ferment
at room temperature for three to four weeks. Lemons can be kept for one to
two years.



