
Ingredients
- 2 each Halibut Filets (About 5 oz. each, skin removed)
- ½ cup Skinless Almonds, finely chopped
- ½ Cup Butter, unsalted & room temperature
- ½ Tsp Minced Garlic Clove
- 1 TBL Minced Chive
- 1 Tsp Mince Fresh Thyme
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil as needed
- ¼ Cup All Purpose Flour
- 1 TBL Minced Shallot
- ¼ Tsp each Salt & Pepper
- TBL Minced Parsley
Preparation
Preheat Oven to 400F.
To Make Compound Butter:
Using a hand or stand mixer, combine shallot, garlic, butter, salt & pepper, thyme, parsley, and chive together. In an appropriate vessel, whip ingredients thoroughly together. Reserve at room temperature till ready to use.
To Prepare the Halibut:
Chop almonds. On a plate or cutting board, pat Halibut dry with a paper towel then, thoroughly dredge in flour (salt & pepper optional, see Chef’s notes). Place an oven safe pan over medium heat. Once hot, add a few tablespoons of olive oil. Dropping the pieces of fish away from you, carefully lay the Halibut pieces in the pan, skin side down first. Gently brown for 3-4 minutes, until you can begin to see color on the edges. Carefully flip the fish pieces over in the pan and turn off the heat/flame. Allow fish to rest for few minutes.
Once the browned skin side has cooled a bit, it is ready to encrust. Generously spread 1-2 TBL. of the compound herb butter across the top of the filets. Working quickly (and before it melts), press in a quarter cup of minced almonds across the top of each filet.
Place filets with almond crusting into the oven at 400F, for 8-10 minutes (depending on the thickness of your Halibut filets). Once time has expired, remove from oven, allow them to rest for a minute or so, and then serve with your favorite side dish and your 2019 Patz & Hall Cherry Ridge Chardonnay! Bon Appetit!
Chef’s Notes:
A great alternative for using All-Purpose flour is Wondra. It’s a finer grained flour product, that does not clump as much as regular AP or other alternatives such as Almond or Rice Flour.
You can season (add salt and pepper) your dredging flour but be careful…. Consider the seasoning added to your butter, along with whether you used unsalted or salted butter, and whether the almonds you use have salt on them as well.
I like to use Marcona almonds as a much more luxurious almond option.
Dish is pictured with Lemon & Garlic Braised Swiss Chard
The term “skin side down” may be confusing to some. You DO want to have the skin removed from your halibut pieces before cooking. When placing pieces in a pan to cook, you always want to put the side down that HAD skin on in first, to sear. The side of the flesh that had skin on it will hold together better once cooked/cooking, so as to not fall apart when flipping or removing from cooking pan to plate.