Pan-Fried Halibut Steak with Sauce Grenobloise Recipe

Pan fried halibut steak with Grenobloise sauce, buttered potatoes and roasted tenderstem broccoli.

Pan-Fried Halibut Steak with Sauce Grenobloise Recipe

Classic cooking always seems so fancy, but this pan-fried halibut steak in a Grenobloise sauce is very simple at its heart. The fish is cooked in clarified butter, then you toast a few croutons. Finally, you make a simple brown butter, lemon and caper sauce in the same pan and use it to reheat the fish.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Anglo French

Keyword halibut grenobloise, halibut lemon butter sauce, pan fried halibut, sauce grenobloise

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 20

Total Time 40

Servings Servings

Calories 711kcal

Author Brian Jones

Ingredients

For the Fish:

2 Thick-Cut Halibut Steaks 400g or 14oz total
¼-½ teaspoon Salt
35 g Clarified Butter (Ghee) 2 tablespoons

For the Sauce Grenobloise:

2 Slices Bread
50 g Butter 3 tablespoons
1 Lemon
2 tablespoon Capers
5 g Fresh Parsley ¼ cup unchopped volume

Instructions

Season the halibut with the salt and set it aside.
Remove the crusts from the bread (discard it), and cut the bread into 1cm (just under ½") cubes.
Remove the top and the bottom of the lemon, then cut off the skin and pith; you are aiming to form a barrel shape.
Then cut out the individual segments of lemon, leaving the membrane behind.
Cut the segments into 5mm (just under ¼") pieces.
Cut the butter for the sauce into evenly sized cubes. 10-15mm or around ½" will be fine.
Finely chop the parsley.
Heat the clarified butter in a 28cm or 11" pan over high-medium heat, and when the pan is hot, add the halibut and cook for 3 minutes. Do not mess with the fish during this time; just let it sit.
Flip the fish and cook for another 90 seconds, then remove it, cover with foil and set it aside.
Add the bread to the pan and cook until golden, then remove and set aside.
Reduce the heat to medium and add the diced butter; cook until a buerre noisette (brown butter) forms.
Stir the butter whilst you are cooking it, and you are looking for little "brown" flecks to form soon after the butter begins to foam.
This should take 6-8 minutes.

If you get a lot of steam/smoke, your pan is too hot; remove it from the heat whilst the butter melts.

Be careful with this, and a lighter colour pan helps you to see the butter turning a nutty brown and can help avoid burning the butter if you are not familiar with this technique.

As soon as you have a nice brown butter base, add the capers, lemon bits and parsley, and swirl to combine and gently heat through.
Return the fish to the sauce, along with any resting juices, cover with a lid and remove from the heat.
Allow the pan to sit for a couple of minutes for the fish to reheat a little, then serve.

Notes

The skin of halibut is not very nice to eat, but it does a great job of holding the fish together. As a result, I like to keep it on in this recipe and remove it before eating.

If you are cooking for guests, it is easy to remove before you plate up.

Nutrition