The Return of Fish Monday!

It's Fish Monday!  Ok, actually it's Tuesday, and actually I made the fish a few days ago, but it's the first day back from vacation and I wanted the excuse to re-start Fish Mondays, where I report on new recipes and/or techniques I've tried over the weekend (Sunday night is often fish, since I go shopping on Sundays and you shouldn't keep fresh fish around any longer than you have to).  Ahem.

This week's experiment was Butter-Basted Halibut with Red Pepper Coulis and Creamy Corn.  The creamy corn was basically just corn cooked in heavy cream with some salt and pepper-- very simple, very tasty, and very not good for you.  The red pepper coulis was a little more interesting-- chopped up red pepper, onion, white wine, and a few odds and ends, sauteed and then blended with oil to make an emulsified sauce.  Again, not especially difficult, and easily prepared ahead of time, but the first time I'd tried anything like that.  The two lessons I took away from it were 1), it is important to let it cool enough before blending.  Just in case.  And 2), even though the recipe said, "blend until completely smooth," there will basically always be flecks of pepper skin in the liquid, and don't worry about it.

The fish was the most interesting bit for me.  First, it was marinated in a cilantro oil--one bunch fresh cilantro leaves, blanched and drained and then blended with a neutral oil.  One hour later, the fish was BRIGHT green.  A little disconcerting.  Then, the butter basting, a new technique for me.  The idea here is basically to achieve some of the results of the somewhat old-fashioned butter poaching technique, without having to use a pound of butter to get enough to cover the fish.  It seemed to reach that goal, at least-- only a quarter pound of butter went into the pan.  The procedure was basically melt half a stick first, then add the fish to start browning a bit, and then add the rest of the butter.  Tilt the pan off the heat a bit so the melted butter collects at one end, and then slowly spoon the hot butter over the fish for 6 to 7 minutes.  The pan cooks the bottom half of the fish, and the butter cooks the top half.  You get a bit of browning, and a lot of cooked butter flavor.  And when you're done, a lot of the butter stays in the pan, although at this point it's also kind of bright green from washing over the marinade.

It was REALLY TASTY.  The recipe made too much coulis, so I've been eating red pepper sauce with steak and rice and some other things for a few days, but that's no hardship.  And I really want to make more of that corn next summer when it's fresh.  But the fish was the star, with a surprisingly subtle cilantro flavor and all the yumminess that cooked butter can give a dish.