October 16, 2009 - Halibut Cheeks with Champagne Cream Sauce, L'Atelier Potatoes and Spinach

Went down to Marczyk's gourmet market today. They had a nice selection of stuff although a tad pricey. http://marczykfinefoods.com/ They also have a wine shop attached to it which couldn't be left untouched! I went down at my friend Omar's advice since they sell bulk rendered duck fat and it is such a pain to make yourself. It definitely extends the process of buying whole ducks another couple of hours. I walked out with a pretty random bunch of ingredients but one of those was Halibut cheeks. I have never cooked these before but have had cod cheeks from the East Coast before.

My inspiration for this dish was a meal I had at the Hotel Uniq (http://www.hotelunique.com.br/)in Sao Paulo, Brazil at the rooftop restaurant called Skye. The dish was a white fish (halibut I think) over pureed potatoes with a champagne caviar sauce.

This was supposed to be the first of a two-course dinner but after seeing how many halibut cheeks I had and how rich I knew this would be it was the main event. The halibut cheeks were just rubbed with salt and pepper, dredged in flour and then pan-fried. The "L'Atelier" potatoes are dubbed so because of the Joel Robuchon restaurant's potatoes that are served in min Le Creuset dutch ovens. I have been to this restaurant at the MGM in Vegas several times and I am sure there is more butter than potatoes in their version. To make mine I boiled some Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled while hot and then forced these through a strainer to mash them. You are supposed to use a tamis (which I don't have) so after the extensive hand cramping from using a spoon and a strainer I had 75% of the potato through. I then warmed through on medium adding butter and heavy cream. This was definitely not a low-cal dish but man are they tasty.

The champagne sauce was supposed to have caviar but...I live in Colorado. Hence no caviar today. Sauteed shallots, add champagne, reduce, add chicken stock, reduce, add cream reduce, mount with cold butter and then add chives. C'est magnifique! I was going to add lemon juice and in hindsight it would have added some nice acidity because of the richness of everything. The spinach was just steamed and rolled in a sushi mat to squeeze out excess water.

This may be one of the richest dishes I have had in ages but was still very delicious and decadent. The Spanish Cava went nice but didn't break through the richness of the dish. I also tried two white Cotes-du-Rhones and an Albarino and one of the Rhone whites was the clear winner for complimenting the dish. The halibut cheeks are bizarre in that they almost have the stringy texture of king crab and the richness of lobster. Not a bad deal IMO for the same price as normal halibut!