halibut, Wednesday night

Wednesday night I pulled a recipe, dimly recalled, from the dusty recesses of my mind. Not quite remembered right, I later realized, but it was tasty enough.

I had made a black bean stew on Sunday as a quick vegetarian dinner for after swim practice on Monday, and the leftovers were still haunting our fridge. Some of these reheated became the sauce and side for the plate. One part easily done.

The recipe I was trying to recall involved a tortilla crust for frying fish. I had it in my mind as tortilla chips, however, and the crumb was a bit drier going on for that. Not a bad swap out, mind you. A bunch of store-bought chips (Frontera brand, of course!), some chopped garlic, chopped cilantro, and salt all in a food processor, and in short time I had a crumb coating. Salty, garlicky, savoury, an elusive corn flavour underpinning it all.

I dredged two pieces of halibut in flour then milk, then pressed on the crumbs. These when into a pan with oil heated already for a nice browning on each side. I put a lid on part of the time, too, so that the steaming action could better cook the fish itself. It all turned out cooked through but fork tender.

I set out a simple romaine salad with it, and Conrad and I opened a bottle of a Pinot Noir. In the midst of two weeks wherein he will be gone a lot with work travel, we grabbed ourselves a tasty little meal midweek and enjoyed each other's company immensely.