There are certain people in my life who I find breathtaking interesting but with whom the relationship is confined, slightly creepily, to a certain location. There are other folks who, on brief occasions, I wish were bit more location specific.
I know a 46 year old who is brilliant, smart, well read, funny, outlandishly beautiful and (damn it) a lesbian. She also has a weakness for appearing at my doorstep a couple times a year with a small group of people and an entree. She doesn't call in advance.
So this is a story of such a visit. Halibut was the dish. Skinned thankfully but one large fillet.
Unexpected fish is something of a pain. Bring me unannounced lamb, pork or beef and I can wipe up something up regardless of the state of my larder. With care, something that tastes good on pork will taste good lamb or beef. This isn't really true with fish.
Fish is all about textures. Throw a tilapia into boiling water with a good selection of herbs and I am with you. Do the same with salmon or trout and I'll not only pity your guests but I am likely to hunt you down and make the last hours of your life notable.
When I have guests over I will usually do a recipe mainly because the quantity of the food involved. If I want to wing it I would cook something that has individual servings like pork chops. No big deal about making sure the meat is not going to taste wildly different on different areas. Each has a pork chop and I can do each pork chop the same way.
Halibut is a shared dished so I would usually do a recipe. This assumes that the halibut and three diners don't show up out of the blue. It assumes you have some time for prep and for shopping.
So it was a time to open some wine and give the fridge a cold, hard look. There were some onions, some kale and some other very sharp veggies and roots. Halibut is a sweet fish so you don't want to overpower it. However, I did have a good supply of fruits.
This is what I did. I cut up a Honeygold grapefruit and put it off to the side. I also vigorously chopped up two mandarin oranges, canned pineapple (eek), a bit of mango,two green, red or yellow peppers and put them off on a different side. I gave the avocado a serious looking at and decided to pass (ripeness issues).
Most fish cooks fast so you have to prep things before you start cooking the fish. I took the mandarin oranges, pineapple and mango and put them in a mixing bowl. I added some lemon juice ( a couple of squirts), a bit of chives and some lime zest. For some shapeness I added three cocktail onions that were drained, rinsed and chopped finely. I added a dash of oregano simply because there was no reason not to add it to the dish. Thought about some honey and decided to pass again. I tossed this together.
I got out a baking dished. I took the Honeygold grapefruit and squeezed some juice on both sides of the fish. Then I took some grapeseed oil and rubbed it on the fish. I placed the fish into baking dish and peeled the skin off the remaining grapefruit slices and placed it around, not on, the fish. Heated the oven to 350 F and tented the dish with some aluminum foil to slightly hold in the essence of the grapefruit slices.
You should cook the halibut for about five minutes (it depends on the thickness, see the internet). For the last two minutes stick the mandarin orange, chives, pineapple et al into the oven in a covered dish to heat that mixture slightly.
Divide the fish and put the fruit mixture on top. On the side, offer sour cream with a some grated cucumber, dill weed and minced garlic just in case. The veggie in this case was lightly fried asparagus (that will be addressed later) -- the fiber was wild rice.
Just a note about the art. Carl Broman did the drawings. With a bit of luck this will become a feature. I certainly hope so.
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