Halibut with Mushrooms & Onions

Absolutely delicious recipe for halibut! These flavors compliment each other so nicely. I can see this being a warm and comforting cold weather meal or a light summer dinner with fresh caught halibut and garden grown zucchini and onions. It's also a beautiful meal - served over creamy polenta, it's sure to entice even the most finicky fish eater. This recipe is inspired by Lidia Bastianich.

Ingredients:

10 oz. mushrooms - we used porcini and Alaska morels 

 1/2 zucchini, sliced thin 

 7 Tbsp olive oil 

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 tsp kosher salt

6 skinless halibut fillets, 1 inch thick (2.5 pounds total)

2-3 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400*

Slightly oil a large sheet pan

Slice mushrooms fairly thick, and chop reconstituted morels rather small (if using).

In a large skillet, heat 3 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic. Cook about 5 minutes until onions soften. 

Spread onion and garlic on the sheet pan. In the same skillet add another Tbsp of olive oil and sauté mushrooms until softened and a little browned - about 5 minutes. Add the zucchini the last few minutes so the slices are lightly cooked. 

Spread about 1/2 the mushrooms over the onions and season with salt and pepper. 

Season halibut with 1/2 the lemon juice, about 2 Tbsp olive oil and salt and pepper. 

Pour the remaining lemon juice and the white wine over the mushrooms and onions and sprinkle parsley. 

Set the halibut filets on top of the mushrooms and then top each filet with the zucchini slices (shingle them or just lay a few on each piece) and then add the rest of the mushrooms over the zucchini. Make it pretty :)

Bake fish on bottom rack until it flakes easily. Halibut can dry out very fast, so do not overcook. Probably about 10-12 minutes. Fish should have an internal temp of 145*, but the flaking method is a good gauge.

Remove from oven and serve over the creamy polenta.

Polenta takes about 30 minutes to make. Here is a basic recipe that will cook during the prep and baking of the halibut.

Notes: 

Morels are considered among the choicest of edible mushrooms in the world. Here in Alaska, they are harvested after a forest fire; the rich, sooty soil is a perfect growing environment for them. Click here to see how to dry, store and cook with them. Click here to find out more about these little treasures. That being said, Morels can be hard to find, so if you don't have access to them just use what you have. Even button mushrooms taste great in this recipe. 

Margaret, Sep and Audrey.

Morels harvested near Fairbanks,
summer of 2014.
 

Just a girl and her halibut :)

 Prince William Sound, AK