halibut in tortilla crust

And then, once in a while, I actually like something I cook.

I am my own worst critic, likely. Dinner this past weekend. Eh, it was ok. I wasn't embarrassed serving it to friends, but it could have been better. I bit my tongue mostly, though Conrad knew what I was thinking and did tease me lightly for it.

Tonight? It was good. Oh yes, I can quibble. I shan't. The star of the meal, the fish, cooked up about as perfectly as I could hope, and isn't that enough?

I pan-fried a couple of pieces of halibut tonight. Conrad passed through the kitchen a few times, and finally I found him hovering over the plate of crusting mixture, breathing in the aroma and, when caught, asking me what it was. Nuts? I played coy and told him, "Crust." Bad of me. He didn't guess what it was, though he asked again as we were mostly through the meal.

Tortillas. Leftover tortillas from Saturday ripped into pieces and tossed into a food processor with chopped cilantro, chopped garlic, salt, and pepper. Buzz it up until a small, uniform crumb. I rolled the fish lightly in flower, dipped it in an egg and milk wash, then patted it all over with the tortilla crumbs. Popped that into a medium hot pan with a good amount of olive oil and browned it nicely on each side. letting it sit a little with a lid on it to ensure the fish was cooked through but slightly steamed and moist.

Tasty!

I set this atop a quick sear of yellow squash, zucchini, and red pepper seasoned with salt, pepper, and oregano. Atop the fish was a very simple garnish: thinly sliced red onion left to soak about an hour in fresh lime juice.



The truth is, it was another restaurant recipe, more or less. I sort of recall we would make this with tortilla chips in place of the tortillas, so an adaptation to what I had on hand. And in the end, it turned out (happily), to be a dish I liked.