Poached Halibut

At the Capital Hilton in DC, we once had halibut, soba, and baby bok choy in a miso broth. Since then, I've wanted to poach halibut. So, tonight I did.

I made a broth of 3 cups of water, a teaspoon of hondashi powder, and a dash of tamari and an inch of minced fresh ginger and brought it to a boil in a pot.

In a sauté pan I heated a little olive oil and sautéed in it a sliced small cooking onion, a sliced peeled carrot, a fist full of minced oyster mushrooms, and one minced garlic clove. I sautéed until the onions were limp and the moisture was gone.

The sautéed vegetables (plus thyme leaves from our herb garden) were added to the broth and boiled for a few minutes until the carrots were soft. Then, I added 0.6 lbs of halibut steak to the pot, cut in half lengthwise, turned the heat to a simmer, and covered the pot.

I simmered the halibut until cooked through, about 10 minutes. The halves were served in soup bowls with the vegetables on the sides of the bowls. The broth was poured over, to the top of the halibut.

I garnished the meal with chopped chives from our herb garden.

It was delicious. We could use the same method to cook cod or haddock; or use chicken broth instead of hondashi and poach chicken.

No baby bok choy was available. It (or spinach or a little diced cabbage) would have been a nice addition. So would have a small diced potato or cooked soba or orzo.