Halibut with Fennel and Mash

I’ve had a hard time of finding fish and seafood cookbooks that have the right level of complexity to match my cooking style. Fish, in my opinion, should be fixed simply enough so as not to confuse its delicate flavour, but with the right ingredients and subtle touches that compliment and make the dish interesting. I’ve seen far too many cookbooks that please the eye but are almost entirely unusable because of the sheer complexity of the recipe and rarity of ingredients. And I have a book or two with traditional, local recipes that aren’t too shabby, but on the other hand they don’t provide much inspiration.

Last year my son picked out a cookbook as a birthday present, A Feast of Fish, and it’s been about the only fish cookbook I’ve been using ever since. The book is wonderfully illustrated with excellent photography and not only do the recipes inspire, but you can actually find the ingredients in the supermarket if you don’t already have them around the house.

The photo above shows my interpretation of the Grilled Halibut with a Sweet Pepper Cream and Tapenade. Instead of grilling the fish I rubbed some olive oil into the cut sides, seasoned with salt and pepper and seared it in a smoking hot cast iron skillet. I left the cream out of the sauce (a fish stock and wine reduction with the peppers added at the end before whisking in the cold butter) and roasted the pepper rather than fry it, but otherwise I kept to the recipe which is not something I do very often. I highly recommend that you follow the link buy this cookbook (no, it has nothing to do with the fact that I have just added Amazon affiliate links).

The fish was served with roasted fennel and a mash made of 1 carrot, 3 parsnips, butter and a dash of mixed spice.