Pan-Seared White Fish with Sauce Verte
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Pan-Seared White Fish with Sauce Verte
Thus far we’ve covered baking, roasting, steam cooking, and pan cooking. For this recipe, I’ve chosen a method called pan searing. It’s basically pan cooking, only the dish is finished in the oven.To pan sear, we prepare the fish in the same method as pan cooking, but once we’ve flipped the fish, we place the oven-safe skillet in a preheated oven to finish cooking. This method works well with thicker cuts of fish, such as a thicker piece of halibut, cod, rockfish, or salmon.It allows for nice browning on the fish, which adds flavor, but finishing it in the oven will help keep a thicker piece of fish tender and moist.Once the fish is done, it’s topped with a fragrant and flavorful sauce verte. The sauce includes a variety of fresh herbs and aromatics, such as garlic, and citrus—flavors that are deliciously complementary to most seafood.Although there are several versions of sauce verte, I prefer this simpler one. It makes a perfect canvas for a delightful pan-cooked fish dish.
Equipment
- Oven
- Brush
- Skillet
- Pan
- Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 anchovy finely minced
- 1 garlic clove finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives
- 1 teaspoon minced capers
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1½ teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1½ pounds fish halibut, salmon, or thicker pieces of fish work well here, cut into 4 or 5 pieces, removed from the refrigerator at least 15 minutes prior to cooking and patted dry with paper towels
- 2 to 3 tablespoons high-heat oil or ghee
Instructions
- Mash the anchovy with the garlic in a medium bowl. Then, whisk in the parsley, basil, chives, capers, lemon zest and juice, and olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Brush the fish with a little high-heat oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of the ghee in a large oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Be sure the ghee coats the surface of the skillet.
- When the ghee is hot and slightly smoking, add the fish, flesh side down. Let the fish cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until the bottom edges become golden brown. The fish will be ready to flip when it easily comes off the bottom of the pan. If it feels like it’s stuck, just let it sit for 30 seconds longer.
- Flip the fish, remove from the heat, and transfer the skillet to the oven. Let the fish finish cooking in the oven for 4 to 5 minutes, or longer depending on its thickness. To check for doneness, take a fork and pierce the thickest part of the fillet. If it flakes easily or if it looks opaque, your fish is done. Fish will cook a bit longer once it is removed from the oven.
- Remove the skillet from the oven and let the fish rest for 1 to 2 minutes. Place the fish fillets on a platter or individual plates and ladle with a little of the sauce verte. Serve immediately.
