Recipe: Seared Halibut Cheeks w/ Cucumber-Kale Salad and Crispy Potato Rings

Monday night: Regan's new spiral slicer arrived!

I'd bought some halibut cheeks and a cucumber earlier in the day. Back at home, I had some lacinato kale, a couple Roma tomatoes, and a red onion. I sliced the kale into thin slices chiffonade-style, along with a small amount of radicchio. I cut up a few slivers of red onion and the Roma tomatoes (without the innards) and added a couple cloves of freshly chopped garlic. Regan spiral-sliced me a good-sized cucumber, and I added all that jazz together, along with a nice swirl of olive oil and balsalmic vinegar. (Spanish sherry reserve vinegar is a great balsamic substitution, and it is cheaper than a high quality balsamic. )

Now it was time to cook the cheeks. I pulled them out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking, and seasoned them with a little salt and pepper. I got the pan nice and hot and added some olive oil. I'm working with an electric stove top that doesn't like to cooperate. Sometimes it gets too hot and other times not hot enough. Just try your best to get a nice brown color on the fish and flip it after a few minutes. The key is not to overcook the fish and to get a nice sear and crispness on the outside.) This time I didn't quite achieve maximum searing, but at least the fish was not overcooked and still tasted great.

For the finish, Regan spiral-sliced a potato into thin curls that I soaked in water and air- and towel-dried. I threw those into an oven at 425 degrees until nice and crisp. This helped compensate for the lack of proper searing of the halibut. I plated the salad, added the halibut, and placed the crispy potato rings on top of the halibut.

Ingredients (for 2 people)
4-6 halibut cheeks
1 potato
1 large cucumber
1/2 bunch of lacinato kale
1/4 head radicchio
2 roma tomatoes
a few slices of red onion
balsamic or Spanish sherry reserve vinegar
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
olive oil
salt, pepper