I’m not sure how to describe this dish except it was the best halibut I’d ever made. I have to give partial credit to the freshness of the halibut (Thrifty’s is pushing halibut these days… advertising 24 hours from line to dine kind of thing). I served it with broiled tomatoes, roasted yams, and grilled asparagus, peppers and mushrooms. It was a huge hit!

I prepared this dinner in my mother’s kitchen, which is amazingly well stocked with every cooking contraption. Altogether it served 4, hungry people.

1 kg. fresh halibut filets

Tapenade? Sure we’ll call it tapenade

small pile of black olives, chopped as fine as you can get them
1/2 small red onion, chop as fine as you can
sprinkle 2 tsp herbes de provence* on top of chopped mixture
chop it all together until it makes almost a paste
transfer to bowl
add zest of 2 lemons
juice from 1/2 a lemon
3 cloves crushed garlic
some capers
some olive oil to make it a sticky-constency
salt and pepper
mix it all together, set aside

in a baking dish (for broiling), lay fish out flat, skin down
drizzle with olive oil
juice other half of lemon on top
salt and pepper
spread tapenade over fish (it was like an 1/8″ thick)
broil

* I’d never cooked with this herb blend – it’s a mix of thyme, savory, lavender and rosemary. My quebecois friend Dom keeps a rock salt shaker with herbes de provence mixed in… I think I’ll be adopting it into more cooking too.

Jewel Yams with Rosemary

Super simple yams – but I’m totally sold now on Earthbound farms organic jewel yams. They are much smaller than regular yams, but you can eat the skin – they have a nice skin to meat ratio and they got super sweet inside.

I started roasting the yams well before the fish to get the timing right.

Cut yams into thick disks
Chop fresh rosemary, fine
Stir in oil oil, salt pepper
Roast em’

Broiled Tomatoes Provencial!

The tomatoes really complimented the halibut. A bit of sugar reduced the acidity.

Buy the ripest tomatoes you can find.
Slice 1/2 in thick disks, arrange on baking sheet
Drizzle olive oil
Herbes de provence
Sprinkle of sugar
Salt and pepper
Broil until some of the moisture is baked out, but they haven’t blackened.

Serve with grilled veggies (asparagus, bell peppers, mushrooms).