Meyer-Lemon Poached Halibut with Tuscan Bean Salad & Chard

I'm on a little bit of a chard kick right now. It's in season, and it's just divine everywhere I go looking for it. The bunches at the farmer's market yesterday were so lusciously green and leafy, I bought two different varieties. In this dish, I chose to use the classic Swiss variety.


My good friend Colleen, who "doesn't eat quadripeds," challenged me to make a meal with fish. Since I've really been dialing back the bipedal and quadripedal animals myself lately, I was all too excited to make it work. I decided on halibut, which is a notoriously not-overly-fishy fish. Only after I bought a gorgeous filet did Colleen tell me that apparently, halibut is also one of the most difficult fishes to cook.

Undaunted, I decided that cooking the halibut in a sauce on low heat would keep it moist and prevent it from overcooking. My instincts were correct, and we found ourselves with a couple of delicious, quadriped-free dinners.


MEYER-LEMON POACHED HALBUT WITH TUSCAN BEAN SALAD & CHARD

INGREDIENTS

Tuscan Bean Salad:

~1 c. cooked chickpeas (canned is fine)
~1/2 c. cooked cannellini beans (canned is fine)
~ 1 c. cooked wheatberries
glug of good olive oil
zest and juice of 1 Meyer lemon
chopped fresh rosemary
chopped fresh oregano
chopped fresh dill (or you could use parsley)
salt and pepper
red pepper flakes

Chard:

1 large bunch fresh Swiss chard, tough stems removed, chopped into pieces
a little olive oil
salt and pepper

Halibut and sauce:

1 shallot, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. olive oil
3 T. butter
Two fresh halibut filets
1/2 c. dry white wine
Juice of 1 Meyer lemon
Juice of 3 on-the-vine tomatoes (use a sieve to prevent any seeds from getting through)

STEP ONE:

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the Tuscan Bean Salad. Toss to combine. Allow to sit in the refrigerator for a few hours, covered. Bring to room temperature before serving.


STEP TWO:

Blanch the chard (dunk for about a minute into boiling water, then drain and rinse with cold water). Set aside.

STEP TWO:

Heat the olive oil and butter and in large, semi-deep skillet that has a tight-fitting lid. Cook the shallots until translucent. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.

STEP THREE:

Add the white wine, lemon juice, and tomato juice and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low. Season the broth with a little salt and pepper and add the fish fillets to the broth. Cover and cook until halibut is just cooked through, about 5-6 minutes. Do not overcook. Remove halibut and set aside. Cook the sauce on high heat for another few minutes until it reduces a bit.


STEP FOUR:

While the fish is cooking, in another skillet, heat a little olive oil for the chard. Saute the chard quickly until it is hot and just a tad more tender than it was from blanching. Season with salt and pepper.

STEP FIVE:

On two plates, spoon some Tuscan Bean Salad. Place some sauteed chard on top of the salad. Top off each with a halibut filet, then pour the poaching liquid over everything. Serve and enjoy!


If you wanted to make this salad more quickly, using canned beans would be fine. I really liked the texture of the beans I cooked myself, although I came perilously close to oversalting the bean salad - I just dialed back the salt elsewhere and the overall dish came out fine...whew!

The bitterness of the chard was a nice astringent complement to the creaminess of the beans and the succulent, tender fish. I thought the sauce was pretty strongly lemony, but being a lover of all things lemon, it certainly wasn't too lemony for me!

Overall, I thought the meal felt really indulgent when it was actually really light and healthy. Here's what Colleen thought:

"Basically this is my ideal summer meal - light lemony fish, a bed of greens, and magic chickpea melangé. I'm still not quite sure what makes Meyer lemons so amazing, but I swear I could taste a difference in the sauce. Next time I would not brine the beans (though I enjoyed the salt a great deal) - I think it's easy to just add seasoning later on. Maybe we (you) could try an iteration of this dish again for the wintertime and create a more hearty, brothy sauce and winter greens? Mmmm, broth."

Not too shabby! (And I totally agree about brining the beans - a very salty oops. I had no idea the beans would soak up the salt from the water the way they did.)

It was a successful, laid back dinner at home followed by a tour de Ukie-village bars - deliciousness followed by friends and chatter! Saturday night, perfected.

Thanks for reading! More soon...

By Popular Demand, Breakfast for Dinner: Rainbow Burritos!

Yes, Rainbow Burritos.

For two reasons: one, this baby was colorful. Two, I used rainbow chard...mmmm.


I get a gold star for eating seasonally for this post, too: rainbow chard, beans, and potatoes (and a yam is close to a potato, right) are all in season. And what's always in season? Breakfast burritos for dinner, my friends. Fluffy scrambled eggs snuggled up to beans in a warm tortilla...that can't be bad. And this burrito is delicious! And easy! And cost-effective! There's really no reason you shouldn't drop everything and make one immediately.

RAINBOW BREAKFAST BURRITOS

INGREDIENTS

1 T. butter
1 T. olive oil
1 medium yam, diced
1 bunch rainbow chard, ends trimmed, cut into smallish pieces
dash cayenne pepper
a few dashes cumin
black beans, drained and rinsed thoroughly
1 tsp. butter for cooking the eggs (or use nonstick pan spray)
2 eggs, scrambled (or you could use just one)
big handful chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste
1 burrito-sized whole wheat tortilla
light sour cream to serve on the side


STEP ONE:

Heat butter and olive oil in a medium skillet. Cook the yams, seasoning with salt, pepper, cayenne, and cumin, until browned on all sides and tender. Add the chard and cilantro and cook until wilted to your liking. (I just piled the chard right on top of the yams in the pan, and since it was still a little wet from rinsing it, some of the water got into the pan - I think this worked out well because it helped the yam pieces to steam a little bit, making them perfectly tender.)



STEP TWO:

Wrap the tortilla in a damp paper towel and place in the microwave for about 20 seconds to soften it. Then place on a plate. Meanwhile, melt the butter in another nonstick skillet. Beat the eggs in a bowl, then scramble them in the pan.

STEP THREE:

Place some of the yam-chard mixture, beans, then eggs in the tortilla. Roll up like a burrito, or, if your tortilla is too small or won't cooperate like mine was, just pile everything on and hope for the best. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some fresh cilantro sprigs. Enjoy!



The only small snafu I had was that my eggs were a tad on the salty side. I think it would have been a more grievous error if the beans and chard hadn't really been salted at all. Next time I think I'll try this with one egg instead of two - unless of course I can find burrito-sized whole wheat tortillas. This would be great with a little you-know-what nestled in there (cheese, of course), although the sour cream was plenty rich.

Thanks, Tim, for your lovely BFD (breakfast for dinner) suggestion, and I promise to make more BFD meals in the future. Thanks for reading! More soon...

Acorn Squash, Chard, and a Fried Egg

I think I learned an important lesson about seasonality from this meal: things that are out of season don't taste very good. My little acorn squash had its heyday months ago, and that's probably why I found it on sale for 69¢ a pound at the market.


Wooed by its diminutive pricetag, I picked it up, planning to stuff it with...something. I had also grabbed some chard, which is currently my favorite vegetable, and also, I think, out of season. The chard was tasty, but the squash - something about it was just...off. It wasn't inedible by any means, but it just didn't have the great squashy flavor. It was just bland and had a strange mealy texture.

Eating seasonally is pretty difficult, I've found, unless you know a lot about farming and horticulture (um, I don't). You really have to be ready to choose ideology over a wide spectrum of vegetables - a tough choice.

At any rate, this dinner was pretty good despite its poor timing, and when winter squash is in season again, it'll be excellent.


ACORN SQUASH STUFFED WITH CHARD AND TOPPED WITH A FRIED EGG AND BALSAMIC-LEMON SAUCE

INGREDIENTS

1/2 acorn squash
a big bunch of chard
1 egg
2-3 T. chicken broth (water's fine too if you don't have chicken broth)
2 T. balsamic vinegar
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt and pepper
1 tsp. butter
olive oil

STEP ONE:

Preheat oven to 375. Rub the acorn squash with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook until tender, about 45 minutes. Remove from oven; set aside and keep warm.



STEP TWO:

Heat a little olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the chard, seasoning with salt and pepper, and cook until wilted, about 5-6 minutes. Remove the chard leaves from the remaining liquid with tongs or a slotted spoon. Set aside and keep warm.


STEP THREE:

Add the balsamic vinegar and lemon juice to the chard pan liquid, seasoning with a little salt and pepper. Cook over high heat until reduced by half, about 2-3 minutes. Set aside.

STEP FOUR:

Melt the butter over medium-high heat. Fry the egg, yolk intact, until the whites are set, but the yolk is still runny. (You could also poach the egg, but I was too lazy). Place the squash on a plate, top with the chard and some balsamic sauce, and the egg. Enjoy!


Overall, this was a satisfying dinner, even if the squash was suspect. Luckily, I bought some very in-season asparagus for upcoming meals! It's fresh, seasonal, and local - sure to be a delight.

Thanks for reading! More soon...