Halibut is a flatfish that can grow to an enormous size, specimens of 3 meters in length with a weight of more than 300 kilograms are no exception.
You will immediately understand why you always find halibut fillets at the fishmonger and not a whole fish. Farmed halibut is actually much smaller than its wild counterpart.
You can already hear in the name that it is related to the exclusive turbot and that is certainly the case with the meat of the halibut. The beautiful, white flesh is very firm and therefore perfectly suitable for baking.
Frying halibut fillet
In this recipe we fry the halibut fillet in a dash of oil and a knob of butter. We’ll fry the fat side first.
When the underside is lightly colored, we’ll turn the fish. We also add a large lump of butter.
When the underside is lightly colored, we’ll turn the fish. We also add a large lump of butter.
Then, we deglaze the pan with lemon juice and grater, parsley and capers on top.
Finally, we add the finely chopped parsley.
We serve the fish with beurre blanc sauce. Beurre blanc is one of the famous classic French sauces that actually only consists of four ingredients: fish stock, white wine, whipped cream and butter.
Pan seared halibut fillet with beurre blanc
Ingredients
- 4 slices halibut 140 grams each (skinless)
- 1 lemon for the juice and zest
- 8 sprigs parsley
- 2 tbsp capers drained
- 2 dl beurre blanc sauce recipe
- lump butter
- splash sunflower oil
- black pepper freshly ground
- salt
Instructions
- Pat the halibut fillets dry with a piece of kitchen paper and season them generously with salt and pepper.
- Chop the parsley finely and keep it aside.
- Heat a small dash of sunflower oil in a non-stick pan and fry the halibut fillets on the skin side. Turn them over as soon as the bottom is lightly colored and then add a large knob of butter to the pan.
- Cook this for another 4 minutes on a medium heat, while continuously spooning the bubbly butter over the fish fillets.
- Deglaze the pan with the lemon juice, zest, parsley and capers and spoon these over the halibut.
- Remove the pan from the heat and carefully scoop the fried halibut fillets into a deep plate. Spoon some more of the garnish over it and carefully pour over the warm sauce.
