I went to the market the other day, by myself, which is never a good thing. I always come back with more condiments then food. One condiment that I couldn’t resist buying this time around was a spicy tartar sauce. Well, when you buy tartar sauce you have to buy fish, so I bought 1lb of halibut and went home.
I’ve never cooked halibut before in my life, I’ve eaten it plenty of times and I’ve seen people cook it, but I personally never had the pleasure of working with it. Mostly because the wife is not very tolerant of fish in general, so getting her to let me have raw fish in the house (that wasn’t sushi) and to cook it was a feat in itself. And she ate it!
This recipe was basically invented on the fly. Like I said, I’ve never cooked halibut and wanted to jazz it up a bit. I apologize that the measurements are not exact, but I hardly ever measure things in the kitchen anyways.
Ingredients:
1 lb halibut (cut into 2 steaks)
Chiltepine Peppers (your decision on how much)
Brown Sugar
Coconut (handful)
Pecans (handful)
Sour Cream (about 2 tablespoons worth)
I bought 1lb of Halibut (costs about $17.99 a lb). I removed the skin and cut the piece lenghtwise in order to get two nice sized Halibut steaks.
Step 2: Pecans & Peppers
Chop up the handful of Pecans and place in a bowl.
I bought these Chiltepines at the Fiery Foods Show from Native Seeds – a non-profit organization that is working on perserving the foods of Native American Cultures. The bag cost $4.50 and will last me for qutie a while.
“These wild chiles are small, round and very fiery. Crumble 4-5 in hot stir-fry, chile, or anything you want to spice up. A tasty surprise in ic cream! Picked by Chiltepneras, women of a cooperative, in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico.”
Crush a few of these tiny peppers with your fingers into the bowl of pecans.
Step 3: Pecans & Brown Sugar
Now mix the pecan chiltepine mixture with an equal amount of brown sugar. The toss the mixture into a large skillet over a medium flame and watch carefully. Keep stiring the mixture so it does not stick.
You will notice that all of the sudden, the brown sugar will begin sticking to the pecans and pepper flakes and as soon as it does, it’s time to pull it off the heat.
Step 4: Mixing the Coconut & Sour Cream
Mix the cocount and sour cream together and then mix in the pecan pepper mixture. Before coating the halibut with the mixture, brush the halibut with a light cover of sour cream. Then cover the top of the hailbut steaks with the pecan coconut pepper crust.
Step 5: Finished!
Bake the Halibut at 400 degrees for about 15-20 mintues, checking periodically. You’ll notice the crust will begin turning brown and once the halibut flakes with a fork your done cooking.
This recipe was created on the fly in order to incorporate the Chiltepines and Halibut and I think it turned out very nice. Each bit provided just a touch of heat which was balanced with an equal amount of sweetness. Very tasty if I may say so myself.