Monster Sized Fish
Delicious and Delicate
Maybe you’ve seen it on seafood menus and at the grocery store where it looks like many other white fleshed fish, but many people have never seen a whole halibut, freshly caught. Those that haven’t seen one (and, maybe, you’re one of them), don’t have any idea what the whole fish looks like.
Pacific Coast Recipes
Definitive Guide
$0.99 KindleHalibut are flatfish. Big flatfish. In fact, they’re the biggest of the flatfish, the largest recorded size being over 500 pounds.
But what in the world is a flatfish?
While a flatfish is born like other fish, as they mature they “flatten out” with both eyes being on one side of the fish. Flounder, sole, turbot, and plaice join halibut as flatfish we enjoy on our dinner tables. The first time I had the opportunity to clean a halibut sent to our restaurant kitchen, I was shocked at the size.
Cleaning the fish is relatively easy once you know the technique. Unlike many other fish, with a halibut you must cut down the body following the bone structure of the fish. You won’t be able to simply run the knife along the spine like a salmon or catfish. Instead, starting from that center cut, you have to slice at an angle along the bones toward one edge of the fish. One cleaned side of halibut produces two filets because of this different technique.
Now, how do you cook halibut?
Thankfully, halibut is a very versatile fish that reacts well to broiling, baking, searing, and frying (although I don’t recommend deep frying a fresh piece of beautiful halibut). My favorite technique to use with halibut is to sear it in a hot pan with minimum oil, finish it in the oven, and servmasqueradee it with any number of sauces or roughly chopped and mixed toppings.
This same versatility in cooking is carried over to the versatility in serving. Halibut can be served topped with everything from morel cream sauce to a salad made of fennel, kalamata olives, and sliced oranges. Like many other white fleshed fish, a good starting point if you’ve never cooked halibut before, is to dress the cooked fish with a drizzle of freshly squeezed lemon, a few capers, and garnished with chopped parsley. After that, you can start getting creative.
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