Lemon Cream Cheese Halibut

I deviated from my normal fish coatings just a tad and decided to try using cream cheese instead of my usual mayo or yogurt as a base. It turned out to be a really nice flavor that beckons for dinner on the deck watching a beautiful sunset. I paired the halibut with some Brussels Sprouts Almondine. It was a well matched side, and you can find that recipe by clicking here.

Ingredients:

• 2 6oz halibut filets
• 1 1/2 cups plain Panko
• 3 tbsp cream cheese
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• olive oil cooking spray

Preparation:

Mix cream cheese, olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt & pepper

in a dredging dish. I find a dinner fork works well for this.

Coat filets with the mix, press into Panko and then place in foil lined, sprayed baking tray.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes.

Serve with a green vegetable of your choice or use the aforementioned Brussels sprouts.

Blessed be... and happy cooking!

Baked Halibut with Dijon/Mayo/Panko

Halibut is such a lovely fish... dense and meaty yet mild in flavor. It works well with moderately robust seasoning, but you don't want to add too much so as to lose the beautifully delicate flavor of the fish itself.

For this dish I prepare a coating of Dijon mustard, mayonnaise, and olive oil to coat the fish before pressing both sides of the filet into plain Panko. I prefer plain over seasoned Panko for this coating so the flavor of the fish itself is not overwhelmed.

Ingredients:

• 2  6 oz halibut filets
• mayonnaise
• Dijon mustard
• olive oil
• 1/2 head bok choy
• 12 grape tomatoes cut in half lengthwise
• a boatload of fresh spinach (you know how it shrinks lol)
• 2 cloves garlic
• kosher salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

Preparation:

Fish: Mix enough mayo, mustard and oil to cover both filets and have some left over for the veggies later. Press the filets into Panko and set in baking dish. Heat your toaster oven to 380 degrees. Time the actual bake with your vegetables so everything is done same time. Bake at 390 for 8 min and then broil for another 1 min or until the Panko gets to your preferred color brown.

Bok Choy: Cut the bok choy into bite size pieces and cook in covered pot with a touch of olive oil on medium heat and frequent tossing. Add salt to taste, but go easy. Once cooked, add some of the Dijon & mayo coating and mix well. Finally add the tomatoes and toss until warm but still firm.

Spinach: Smash and mince two cloves garlic and sautee in olive oil. Once garlic starts to brown, add the boatload of spinach and cover. Toss frequently as spinach wilts. Season to taste with salt and fresh ground pepper. Remove from heat when your desired wilt is achieved.

Blessed be... and happy cooking!

Heavenly Halibut... or Cod... :-)

This one is adapted from AllRecipes.com where the recipe calls for two pounds of halibut. As fun as that much fish may seem, we eat lovely 6 oz portions in my home which seems to be quite enough protein. I'm therefore paring down to a 2-person recipe and leaving out carbs to make the dish diabetic friendly. I like to serve this dish with a vegetable like lima beans that have both a low glycemic index (46) and load (7).

Ingredients:

• 2  6oz halibut or cod filets
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp salted butter - softened
• 1.5 tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp chopped scallions
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 dash sriracha sauce

Preparation:

Pat filets dry using paper towel, squeezing gently to remove excess liquid and coat lightly with olive oil. Place filets into your toaster oven's foil lined baking tray with the rack set so the filets are about 6" from the heat source, and broil on a low setting for ~8 minutes.

HalibutCod

Meanwhile, mix all other ingredients in a bowl.

Remove filets from the oven, coat with mixture and return to the oven for about another 2 minutes. Your cue to serve is when the topping is bubbling and slightly browned.

Serve with a side of diabetic friendly vegetables and a green salad of your choice.

Blessed be... and happy cooking!

Lemon Pepper Halibut & White Bean Salad

This is another recipe that was inspired by a restaurant chef who refused to share way back in 2013... The appetizer of bacon wrapped grilled scallops served over a white bean salad topped with micro-greens was so incredibly good that we had to order a second portion for deconstruction... something I absolutely love to do. :-) So here's what I started with:

Fantastic appetizer... really... and back then I was all about the bacon! LOL What follows is a mystery to me a decade later, as I found a bunch of pics I took of recreating the dish at home ten years ago, but no recipe. Fortunately I was smart enough to take a group shot of the ingredients I used, so that gave me a place to start.

After studying the old pic it was time to get to work cutting up the ingredients using sizes best I could see in the decade old images and guessing at quantities.

This looked like a pretty good balance so I just put it all together, taking really bad notes along the way. LOL Hey... creativity is not always pretty! :-)

Now that I had my salad it was time to create a proper dressing. I could see from the old picture that lime juice was included, so I immediately went to my Luscious Lemon Vinaigrette recipe for guidance. Trial and error came up with this mix.

My mix really brought it all together to create a fresh, vibrant, flavorful salad than can actually stand alone. Fish lover that I am, though, I was itching to try the halibut bites I had recently received as part of a fish order. Seasoned with my favorite lemon pepper blend from FreshJax Organic Spices and a little olive oil, they were given a quick fry and then added on top of the white bean salad.

You didn't think this was just a story, did you? *smirks* The process is pretty obvious above, but here is the ingredient list. Enjoy!

Fish:

• 12 oz cubed halibut - any other white fish or scallops will work well, also.
• olive oil
• 1+ tbsp FreshJax lemon pepper blend

Salad:

• +/-3 cups baby spinach - should yield 1.5 cups chopped
• 2 15oz cans white beans - drained and rinsed
• 1 orange bell pepper - diced
• 1 shallot - minced
• 2 medium tomatoes - seeded and then diced
• 1/2 English cucumber - peeled, quartered, seeded and diced - should yield 1 cup

Dressing:

• 1/8 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/8 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 tsp table salt
• 1/8 black pepper

Enjoy!

Blessed be... and happy cooking!