The Recipe Room

Halibut is quite a versatile and relatively inexpensive fish. It has a non-oily, but firm and mild-flavoured flesh. It is capable of absorbing other flavours well, making it great for experimenting with in the kitchen! And it can be substituted for other kinds of fish and sometimes chicken in many recipes. If you don’t like fishy tasting seafood but want to include fish in your diet, halibut is a good choice.

My first experience with halibut was when I was a young girl. Of course, my mum made sure that my piece didn’t contain any bones. She mixed together a simple butter sauce to drizzle over the tender fish, and I loved it! She and I like to experiment together with various dressings, and I owe part of the credit for this recipe to her. We have a lot of fun, and I appreciate that she instilled in me the importance of fish in a healthy balanced diet.

Of course, some of my favourite creamy toppings are not necessarily low-calorie…. But overall, fish has a lot of health benefits.

This Baked Halibut with mixed herbs is just lovely. As it’s cooked in lemon juice, garlic, parsley, chives and thyme, all those different flavours soak into the fish, making a really tasty meal. But be careful not to overcook the halibut, or it will dry out because of its low oil content.

For a spicier dinner, try this yellow thai fish curry.

Are you one of those people who is a god or goddess in the kitchen when it comes to preparing the main dish, but you scratch your head when the time comes to prepare the sauce to go with it? Although a standard herb butter sauce is delicious, I prefer my versatile sauce recipe that I have used successfully with both chicken and salmon, and I’m sure it would go well with red meat as well, as it is just plain delicious!

The main ingredients are Tarragon and dry white wine; add to that a few minutes of slow simmering to bring out the flavours. This one is sure to be a hit, and it is so easy to make it’s almost ridiculous!

What we need:
• 1 pint of organic chicken stock
• 1 carton of double cream (around 1/2 a litre)
• 1 decilitre of fresh Tarragon (and plenty of it, but added to taste)
• 1 decilitre of parmesan cheese
• 1/2 a lemon
• a cup of dry white wine such as Chardonnay

How to make it:
1. Put the chicken stock in a saucepan with a glass of dry white wine and boil uncovered until there is only 1/3 of the liquid left.
2. Add the double cream and simmer on a low heat until the consistency is sauce-like.
3. Chop the fresh Tarragon and add depending on taste. But remember, the Tarragon and white wine should be the dominant flavours.
4. Squeeze a little bit of lemon juice and a small piece of grated parmesan.
5. Let it simmer for a few minutes to get all the flavours swirling around.
6. Now that the sauce is ready, I would suggest you serve it with salmon steak or chicken breast, and it goes fantastically well with Hasselback potatoes. On the side, a salad of wild rocket, tomatoes and avocado with just a touch of Modena balsamic vinegar, adds that extra oomph.
Time needed: approximately 20 minutes

Serves: 2-3

Level: easy

Note: If you want to make your stock from scratch, here is how you go about it.
Put a pack of bony organic chicken joints in three pints of water with a chopped carrot, onion, leek, a pinch of salt, and pepper. Bring to the boil and cook for 2-3 hours with the lid slightly to one side until there is about a pint of liquid left. Sieve the solids, and you have a basis for many homemade cubes of stock.