Fish was my first word in English. I’m obsessed with fish.  I really can’t get enough of it and everytime I eat it it always feels like a new experience.  Cooking fish is hard to do so I have been working my butt off to try and get it right. 

I have been reading a lot of Eric Ripert books (Return to Cooking, On the Line) lately to try and master cooking fish the right way along with the James Peterson book: Fish and Shellfish.  The delicate balance between done and overcooked is a very thin line.  Too much cooking and you can’t go back and fix it.  Undercooked and it looks fine on the outside but the middle is a disaster…..it’s not fun to re-cook fish……………

I nailed it this time and I have been nailing my fish cooking lately. I’m pretty proud of that and hopefully I can stay consistent.  When done correctly fish is better than steak, there I said it.  Anyone can age and cook steak but it takes skill to cook fish properly.   I’m slowly making my through the different types of fish and trying the different methods of cooking them…..it’s going to be a while before I can get through them all…..coolest challenge in the world

Israeli cous cous with 1:1 ratio of water to cous cous.  Slowly steam, then finish with a little salt and pepper.  In a separate pot saute diced yellow bell and orange bell peppers with eggplant.  I chose to saute them in clarified butter when it was close to being done I added some meyer lemon zest (not candied), salt, pepper, then folded in the cous cous and finished it with white truffle oil.

Murray river pink salt and crushed black pepper go on the fish for 20 minutes in the refrigerator then each side is seared at extremely high temperatures on a pan with a small amount of clarified butter.   The fish is then finished in the oven.  The fish is removed, placed on the cous cous then a thyme butter sauce is made in the pan with a little white wine to deglaze.  Tiny amount is poured over the fish then garnished with the thyme sprig.

Ta-da!

Eric