Halibut in Red Wine Sauce

Beppi Crosariol from the Globe & Mail was so kind as to do a little video on how to make a simple red wine sauce some time ago.

Sauté some diced shallots in a little oil. Add equal parts red wine and chicken broth (about 1/2 cup of each) and boil until they reduce by half. Turn off the heat and add a tbsp of balsamic vinegar or a tbsp of dijon mustard, or both. Maybe some fresh herbs, chopped.

He recommended searing and roasting some kind of meat, but fish would work fine, and when in Newfoundland…well that’s not really true anymore. You can get all kinds of meat, local and not so local, but fish is still my first choice when I come home. Call me stubborn. It’s the only time I’ll buy cod and halibut. I could have poached the halibut, but instead I decided to sear it and roast it like Beppi’s meat suggestion. Washed, patted dry with paper towels, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and then added to a hot skillet with a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat. Browned on both sides and then the skillet went into the 425 degree oven for 10 minutes. Should have been perfect. Except the fillets were very, very thick, and they just didn’t want to cook through. I left them there and still they were taking too long. I’d defrosted them in the fridge all day, but maybe they weren’t completely thawed. Anyway, when they were finally cooked through the middle the outside was over-cooked. The man at the Fish Depot had even said these were lovely fillets. I was so disappointed. It’s one thing to ruin mediocre fish, but good halibut? It’s not even sustainable. It was a real treat.

Maybe that’s God saying buy only sustainable fish and I will instill you with the divine strength and ability to cook it properly. Fish should be so simple. It didn’t ask to be over-cooked. I poured the red wine sauce (with both dijon and balsamic) over it and tried to drown my sorrows in sub-par cooking wine sauce with the alcohol evaporated out of it. Not as effective as a glass of the stuff, but much more delicious…

God = 1; me = 0; halibut = tough and abused