Wednesday, Carn.H calls to tell me his dad (aka my “lo ye”) has some fish for us.
Freshly caught on Vancouver Island and specially delivered by an uncle. Well… Carn.H had to go to Steveston to pick them up on Friday but it was well worth the trip!
Luckily for us, they did all the gutting so all that was left was filleting the halibut and chopping up the salmon. I’ve filleted fish before, but only small fries and you-tubing “how to fillet a halibut” left me expecting a biiiiiiig fish that would take up our entire counter space.
Well, it wasn’t as big as I as expecting but still a decent size – especially for our household of two.
I started off with an incision along the neckline.
Then down the “spine” or whatever you call the split between the meatier part of the fish and its tummy. Or in the words of Carn.H “the top of the rib-line where it meets the spine” 0.o
Then came the delicate process of removing the flesh from the bone without slicing into the flesh a bizillion times. A process where you learn to appreciate and yearn for a proper filleting knife.
But I think I did a pretty good job, all things considered.
Since it’s still intact and all ^^
It was actually a lot harder to fillet the top side. Because I had already removed the flesh (weight) from the underside, the fish kept moving around when i tried to fillet it and it was too big to hold in place and fillet at the same time…
After 2 long hrs – 1.5 hrs of fish prep and .5 hrs of recipe prep – food was finally served! Poor C and M had to wait until 9:30/10pm for dinner ><
The first dish of the night was a Dijon Mayo, Panko Crusted Halibut Fillet. I had found 6 or 7 delish looking Halibut recipes online and this was within my top 3 to try.
I made a few ingredient substitutions but otherwise, followed the directions fairly diligently. (I used wasabi in place of horseradish and Panko instead of breadcrumbs – I also had to bake the fish for 28 min rather than the suggested 15-18)
For the Dijon, I used a whole grain version from Trader Joe’s. Since I don’t normally use condiments I will have to borrow Carn.H’s comments: “you can tell that this Dijon has been made with simple ingredients and has been less processed than most”.
This dish was well received, but not THE dish of the night.
I think this recipe is pretty versatile and would work for all kinds of fish fillets but didn’t highlight the freshness of the Halibut. In fact, the fish was quite dense and had lost some of it’s natural oils in the cooking process. If anything, I would use a lower quality or frozen fish for this recipe in the future.
The Panko tossed with parmesan and butter before baking is something I will remember for the future. While heavier, it gave the Panko a much more flavorful crunch and paired well with the creaminess of the sauce.
Likelihood of re-cooking: 80%
Culinary mindset: great “cover-up” flavor and for Dijon-lovers
For Other Recipes, click here
To make this dish a “meal”, the fish was accompanied by simply boiled broccoli and quinoa cooked in chicken stock.
The second halibut dish of the night was pan seared with capers and butter.
Buttery, moist, flakey goodness with a punch of salty acidity from the capers. Straight forward, yet powerful.
This was a case of simplicity working it’s magic ^^
Carn.H felt this was the winner of the night and I completely agree in terms of texture but all three flavors (the Dijon Mayo, Buttered Caper and Maple Soy (to be described)) were all good in completely different ways.
The recipe can be found here.
Likelihood of re-cooking: 100%
Culinary mindset: Capers!
For Other Recipes, click here
The second fish of the night was King Salmon. After being scaled, half steak-i-fied and half prepped for steaming the fish was ready to go.
I marinated the salmon steaks in a maple soy mixture for 30 minutes before baking for 25 minutes.
I loved the sweetness of the flavor and the slight glazed crunch after baking. My piece was cut slightly thinner than the rest so I felt it was a bit overcooked but I was assured by our guests that theirs were perfect ^^
I’ve used a similar recipe on chicken before and I think I can safely conclude that it pairs better with salmon ^^
Maple Soy Salmon Recipe <here>
Likelihood of re-cooking: 80%
Culinary mindset: Sweet ^^
For Other Recipes, click here
For dessert, C and M brought over a lovely array of cakes from Pine House Bakery. Napoleon Cake, Coffee Sponge, Mango Mousse …
…and Espresso Sponge ^^
All four cakes were light, airy and not too sweet ^^ almost like eating fluff. It was the perfect end to a satisfying meal. My only complaint was the Napoleon pastry – slightly softened with a bit of an odd flavor. Like stale oil.
C, knowing my love of egg tarts, bought one extra dessert ^^ The custard wasn’t bad, but the pastry was once again, a bit of a flop. Which means my search for the perfect egg tart continues ^^
likelihood of revisiting: 90%
culinary mindset: sponge cakes and cocktail buns ^^
For Bakeries Elsewhere, click here
– C.Herb –
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