It isn’t often that I pick halibut over salmon, but we had eaten salmon a fair bit the last couple of days, so we felt like a change, and the halibut at Madison Market looked pretty decent. This leads me on to Madison Market’s fish counter… if you don’t have time, or it is too late in the day to run down to Mutual Fish (my favorite fishmongers by a country mile), MM has a reasonable fish counter. It might not be the cheapest around, but it is generally good and fresh. Anyhow, back to the food..

Pan roasting is my favorite way of cooking halibut. Using olive oil as the fat, you get a great golden brown crust to the bright white flesh. A wonderful contrast. I had some carrots and a parsnip in the fridge looking like they needed to be eaten pretty soon, so I decided on another favorite – glazed vegetables. Since these veg were kinda big, I needed a way to cut their size down, so they cook in a good time, but also cook evenly – so they all need to be the same size. Break out the veg peeler, and start making ribbons from the vegetables! These are cooked down in water, butter and sugar. Done right, you end up with just enough cooking sauce to coat the veg in a great glaze.

The mash.. I like to leave the skins on when I use new potatoes. I know a lot of people hate that, because it adds a bite to the mash.. but I like it, so there! Finally, a little olive tapenade is spread around the outside. Tapenade is a great addition for most fish, especially white fish that has a mellow flavor. Tapenade is also dead easy to make, and when made right, tastes 100x better than anything you can buy in the store (so Danika tells me), 10 minutes, and you are really done. Just a mix of olives, parsley, capers, olive oil, dijon mustard (if you wish). Traditionally you should also bung some anchovies into it.. but I didn’t have any, and Danika doesn’t like anchovies that much. So we left that

 Anyhow, it ended up absolutely delicious, and certainly one for the book we reckon!