Halibut with Mushroom Rice and Tomato-Orange-Olive Sauce

The last halibut was long enough ago. So I use the drive past Ibbenbühren to relieve the favorite fishmonger from the Münster market at his ancestral home for a good piece of halibut fillet. And if there’s already something so fine, the rest of the dish should not stand back.

I start with the sauce, because it’s supposed to boil down. An onion and a clove of garlic go into the sauté pan finely chopped, shortly followed by a handful of Kalamata olives, pitted and roughly chopped, as well as some thyme and a bay leaf. Everything is sauteed in some olive oil, meanwhile I squeeze the juice of an untreated orange and add it to the pot. To this I add 8 bottled tomatoes, skinned and chopped. The sauce now simmers for about half an hour until it becomes thick and firm. Pepper, salt and add some grated orange peel.

Now it’s the rice’s turn. For this, I clean 4 medium brown mushrooms and cut them into small cubes. Saute them in some butter until soft, then add 150 g basmati rice and a halved clove of garlic. Everything simmers until the rice is translucent. I season with ** savory**, deglaze with vegetable broth and let the rice cook. No not a risotto ;) In the middle I still mortar a few pieces of dried porcini and add the powder to enhance the mushroom flavor. After about 20 minutes, the rice is also cooked.

Meanwhile, a few Romanesco florets end up in the boiling water for a few minutes.

Finally, I fry the halibut quite uninspired simply hot from each side 2-3 minutes and serve everything nicely arranged. It’s delicious!

Recipe is for two, with good leftovers for the following day.

halibut fillet, basmati with mushrooms, romanesco, orange sauce