Halibut with Cocoa

Parish and I enjoyed a wonderful cooking show on PBS. Between show choir sets we purchased some of the ingredients and made a wonderful Scandinavian dish.

036 — Victoria, Sam, and Valentina cheering on Vivian!

Looking up the recipe was easy!

http://www.newscancook.com/recipes-by-chef/halibut-with-cocoa/

Link to website with recipe above!

INGREDIENTS

Four 1/3 pound (150 g) halibut filets
1 lb. (450 g) carrots, peeled and boiled
1 ½ lb. (700 g) potatoes, peeled and boiled
½ cup (1 dl) milk
1 small red cabbage (about 1 pound or 450 g), finely cut
2 tbs. cocoa butter
4 tbs. cocoa beans, crushed, or 1-2 tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 orange
3 tbs. butter
1 tbs. apple cider vinegar
½ tsp. sugar
Salt
Pepper

We had to search for Raw Cacao Butter, but we found it at The Good Foods Grocery Store! I wish I could put smells on this post. OH MY GOODNESS! It tastes and smells Divine!

In our show about chocolate, we traveled to St. Lucia in the Caribbean to pick up fresh cocoa beans and to find inspiration for this dish.

018 — We could not find the cocoa bean, so bought this instead.

Fish and cocoa are an unusual combination, but it works out better than you would think – the cocoa is used as a spice, with no sweetness involved.

Serves 4

PREPARATION:

1Mash the boiled potatoes. Boil the milk and 2 tablespoons of butter and fold in the mashed potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Our twist: I used my Ninja to mash/blend the potatoes. I also added some left over rosemary butter that my husband previously made for a loaf of Artisan bread we purchased.

2Place the boiled carrots into a beaker with 1 tablespoon of butter and blend together using a hand blender until you obtain an even mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Our twist: We did not have whole carrots so I used the bag of small bite size carrots. They worked great! I also used my Ninja on pulse so I could keep the firm texture.

3Salt the halibut filets well. Season the filets with the cocoa beans and pepper. Fry the filets in the cocoa butter for 3 minutes in a frying pan over a high heat with the skin side facing down. Then fry the filets on the other side for 2 minutes. The filets will be ready when their core reaches a temperature of around 118 Fahrenheit (48 Celsius) for perfectly cooked but still quite rare.

Our twist: We went to the Fresh Market, and they had run out of Halibut. We laughed. I think it’s because everyone saw this special on PBS the night before! 🙂 So I asked him what fish would be “similar” in texture and cooking as Halibut, and he offered Sea Bass. So we cooked this recipe with Sea Bass.

Our twist: We used a cast iron pan!

4Prepare a simple cabbage salad: fry the red cabbage pieces in the fish juice along with the vinegar, sugar and the juice of half an orange. Add salt and pepper to taste.

005 — God made such beautiful foods! That cabbage is so rich in purple , and the design a miracle!

Our twist: I used my Ninja to “cut” the cabbage. I am loving my Ninja! We also did not have an orange, so used orange juice. You’ll notice in the video below that we caused a lot of heat and great aroma smoke in the kitchen. Our smoke alarm went off! We were reminded that on the show the chef was cooking outside in Norway!