This is a slight adaptation of as recipe by Laura Calder, host of the Cooking Channel show, French Food at Home. I don't watch much food tv and so haven't actually seen her show, but I've watched a few of her videos on the Cooking Channel web site and must say I'm a bit smitten.
She's quite an attractive young lass and appears totally relaxed and at-home in front of the camera. While not French herself, she is clearly enamored of the French lifestyle and having grown up in French speaking Canada, has a good handle on French home cooking. Her food is wholesome, unpretentious, and rooted in classic French technique though much of her cooking brings French flair to other ethnic cuisines.
Her version of this dish calls for cooking the chickpeas from their dried state, I took a shortcut and used canned ones instead. She also calls for roasting baby carrots and I sliced up a few large carrots we had laying about for my version. If halibut is hard to come by where you are (as it often is here) fell free to substitute cod, sea bass, or even salmon if you wish. Regardless of what fish you use, you WILL want to make the smashed peas with olives, the browned lemon-butter and the cumin carrots, they are all outstanding. Since making the smashed chickpeas for this dish I've made them a few more times in place of rice or potatoes as a side in other meals, they are so good, and so good for you.
Cheers – Steve
Halibut with Crushed Chickpeas and Cumin Roasted Carrots
Ingredients
for the chickpeas:
- 2 - 15 ounce cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons EVOO
- 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
for the carrots:
- 4-5 large carrots cut into coins
- EVOO
- 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, lightly crushed
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
for the halibut:
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 - 4 ounce halibut filets
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- freshly minced parsley or basil for garnish
Instructions
for the chickpeas:
- Heat the oil in a saute pan over medium-low heat and gently cook the garlic for 1 minute. Add the drained chickpeas and season with salt and pepper to taste. When warmed through, lightly crush them with a potato masher and remove from the heat. Add the chopped olives, lemon zest and lemon juice to taste. Drizzle with a little more EVOO, cover and keep warm.
for the carrots:
- Heat the oven to 400℉. Toss the carrot coins onto a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with EVOO to coat, sprinkle with the crushed cumin seed, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Roast until tender and starting to caramelize, 20-30 minutes, depending on how thick you cut the coins.
for the halibut:
- Melt the stick of butter in a saucepan over medium heat and cook until the milk solids caramelize and turn a nice, rich brown. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice, keep warm.
- Heat the oil in a skillet set over medium-high heat. Season the fish on both sides with salt and pepper and when the oil is hot, but not yet smoking, place the fish in the pan. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the fish is nicely browned, then flip and continue to cook until just cooked through, about another 4 minutes.
- To plate, spoon some crushed chickpeas onto the plate, top with a filet of the fish and serve the carrots along side. Spoon some browned lemon-butter over the fish and top with some freshly minced parsley or basil