Halibut

Savory Olive Oil from Spain blends with herbs and meets halibut for a lush fish dish.

Jarred marinated artichoke hearts get super-crispy and delicious when roasted, making them the secret star of this simple sheet-pan dinner.

For perfectly cooked halibut, all you need is a kiss of high heat from a grill or cast iron pan and a simple vinaigrette. This version is served with a juicy tomato salad.

Give flaky halibut the foil-packet treatment with burst cherry tomatoes and spicy, paprika-loaded sausages.

The acidity in the lime juice and tequila will help the fish firm up, but if it sits too long, it will get tough.

Turn your overzealous farmers' market haul into a gorgeous catch-all salad topped with flaky grilled halibut.

Stuffing halibut fillets with zesty pesto is faster than marinating, but just as flavorful.

I like this one because it's a one-pan dish—you will need a pan with a lid. You can use a can of tomatoes instead of making the purée if you wish, but puréeing the tomatoes produces a better result. You don't need to be precise with the quantities for this dish at all—a handful of cherry tomatoes, add some onion, etc. The important thing is to have the lid to keep in steam and heat so you get a very nice lightly cooked fish. You don't want to overcook it. I've used hake but you can use any white fish like cod, sea bass, halibut or even salmon. It's simple but tasty, and the kind of thing you could easily rustle up for yourself or friends. You can use any green veg but it works well with fennel—sautéed in a pan or slow-baked, or added to the pan and cooked with the fish and tomatoes. This is a great one for a novice cook.

"Oven-fried" fish fingers, coated in panko and pumpkin seeds, are the perfect taco filling.

This is a winning-contestant recipe from Season Four of FOX's MasterChef.

Between the bacon (around 200mg of sodium per slice) and the scallops (over 330mg per 3 ounces), the classic dish is too salty for me to enjoy. But when the bacon is replaced with smoky zucchini ribbons and the scallops are swapped out for halibut rounds, you have a whimsical reinterpretation that actually tastes equally thrilling. I used smoked paprika and cumin to mimic the smoky fl avor of bacon and I decided to glaze the halibut rounds in honey and sugar to mimic the natural sweetness of scallops. The curry is purely for color and to balance the sweetness of the fish, and the spinach pasta lends a rich backdrop for the yellow-tinted "scallops."

Benefits: Heart + Immunity + Brain & Vision + Anti-Aging Beauty Here you've got a tasty recipe that is low fat, heart-healthy, and good for your circulation. It comes from a Chinese colleague, whose family owned and operated Chinese seafood restaurants for years. This is what they had the chef prepare for them almost every evening when they sat down for dinner. Besides its wonderful taste, it's also a beautiful dish with the colorful peppers.

A traditional Spanish romesco sauce calls for almonds, but in this recipe hazelnuts spruce up simple halibut fillets. The sauce freezes well and also partners with chicken, steak, or pasta. For a more budget-friendly dish, substitute tilapia. You can also swap roasted red peppers for the piquillos and use whatever nuts you happen to have in the pantry.

Crispy, crunchy, spicy, and best of all, easy, from chefs Bruce Aidells and Nancy Oakes. Fill a few bowls with lime cream, tangy tomatillo salsa, and quick-pickled toppings (all of which can be made in advance) for a make-your-own taco buffet. Baja purists, feel free to insist on mahimahi for the fish, but sea bass, tilapia, cod, and catfish all stand up equally well to the buttermilk batter.

{flirt with flavor} Season after season, I continue to be captured by the multicolored array of carrots that can be found at the farmers' market in all shapes and sizes, and am always looking for new ways to make them shine. Coriander and carrots make music together as a complement for meaty halibut. Dip your toe into the exotic flavors of Indian spices like coriander and turmeric with this lively, colorful spring supper so pretty you'll want to bring out your finest platter and pour some wine for two. Sip: Torrontes, Sylvaner or Cabernet Franc

In addition to the beneficial omega-3s provided by halibut, the green tea in this dish contains epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG—a powerful antioxidant shown to help prevent cancer. Quinoa is high in protein and fiber.

This is the standard technique for poaching most thick (at least 1 inch) fish fillets or steaks, such as halibut or salmon. Similar to braising, the fish is gently simmered in a flavorful liquid, only in this method the fish is completely covered in liquid. (To poach thinner fillets, follow the shallow-poaching method on page 210, as they may overcook if deep poached.) The cooking time will depend on the thickness of the fillet; plan for 4 to 5 minutes per inch. In this recipe, halibut fillets are poached in chicken stock enhanced with a few aromatics and then served in their cooking liquid (a manner of serving called “à la nage”).

Preparing foods en papillote, which loosely translates to “wrapped in paper,” is actually another way to steam food, even though it takes place in the oven rather than on the stove. It is most commonly used for fish fillets but is also well suited to shellfish and leaner cuts of chicken, such as boneless breast halves. This French technique always manages to impress, the pretty little packages resembling gifts, one for each guest. When the packets are slit open—ceremoniously, at the table—their fragrant aromas are released all at once, hinting at the tastes to come. These bundles are ideal for entertaining, but cooking en papillote has other advantages, too. The packets can be assembled a few hours ahead of time (covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated on a baking sheet) and then tucked into the oven once your guests arrive. And, like other steaming methods, it doesn’t require much added fat; instead, the sealed parchment traps in all that wonderful moisture and flavor. In this recipe, a compound butter helps bring all the components together while adding richness to the dish. Forming the packets is easy—no special skills required. The shape isn’t as important as making sure the edges are tightly sealed. You can fold the parchment into envelopes, wrap it into bundles, or form it into bags, but half-moon packets are the classic shape. The traditional technique begins by cutting paper into a heart shape, but this one starts out as a simple rectangle.

This type of quick braising is similar to shallow poaching (page 210): An aromatic liquid is first simmered to allow the flavors to deepen, then simmered with fish, which takes on some of its character. Also, as with some poaching methods, the braising liquid becomes the sauce. Match the fish and aromatics wisely so as not to overwhelm one or the other. A fish such as salmon is easy to partner; its pronounced taste won’t be flagged by aggressive flavors, such as rosemary or curry powder. Milder-tasting fish, such as grouper, halibut, sea bass, and striped bass, require more subtle companions, like the fennel, tomatoes, and lemon in this recipe. All of these fish are moist and firm-fleshed, ideal for braising.

I love a fish in meat’s clothing, and that’s what this is: a mild-flavored fish cooked in a rich veal jus. I got the idea for it at a restaurant called Ribollita, in Chiusi, the nearest large town to my house in Italy. There, they wrap a pork filet in lardo and then smother it with green peppercorn sauce. Eventually the lardo found its way onto fish instead of pork. We use veal stock that we have left over from making the Veal Breast Stracotto (page 235), but if you haven’t made that dish recently, you can substitute any quality veal or beef stock.

If you cannot find fenugreek seed, this curry is equally satisfying when ground fenugreek is substituted; add with the other ground spices.