Sautéed Yuzu Halibut with Bok Choy

What captivates your attention is indicative of your most fervent interest and desire. Your youtube hits can be reviewing on that. For me, lately, it has been Eric Ripert’s youtube video on sautéed yuzu halibut with bok choy. There is no recipe, just a short video showing the ingredients and the cooking steps. It looks so simple to do. I got the ingredients and started cooking.

Let me tell you. Don’t let the simplicity of the dish and the video fool you. Eric Ripert is a renowned chef. He can put together a well-conceived dish at the tip of his fingers. No sweat! He is able to cook any dish to perfection in a professional kitchen with state-of-the-art appliances. He has the experience working with various ingredients and knows instinctively how to bring out their best flavors. Furthermore, he can simultaneously prepare the sauce, cook the vegetables and saute the fish — again without breaking a sweat. From start to finish, this all happens in the time span of the video — about 5 minutes. Let’s double it and, say, 10 minutes max. It’s like a walk in the park?

Meanwhile, I found myself falling short in every category: recipe conception, kitchen setup, experience, instincts and ability to multi-task. When it’s all said and done, I can barely plate the dish as well as he does. What’s just happened?

Eric Ripert cooks like a dream. I have to deal with a harsh set of kitchen reality and my own limitations. Evidently, there is a gap between the two. I did not see the wide and disparate gap as I was watching the video. It became clear when I walked into my kitchen and started trying to do the same. There is a mountain to climb and it’s like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro! Do not attempt until you read a checklist on preparations and risks.

To narrow in on the sautéed yuzu halibut with bok choy, one thing stands out: I love the yuzu sauce. Slightly acidic with surprisingly lovely flavor. I’ll make this dish again (may be not with halibut) because of that.

Print Recipe

Sautéed Yuzu Halibut with Bok Choy

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 8 oz. or two thick pieces of halibut fillets
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• orange juice, 1 cup
• olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups baby bok choy leaves
• yuzu paste (or lemon and lime juice)
• 1/2 cup shaved fennel
• 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes

Instructions

1

Season halibut with salt and pepper.

2

Reduce orange juice: Pour orange juice in small saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce the juice until slightly thickened. Set aside.

3

Cook baby bok choy: Heat a saute pan with olive oil over high heat. Put bok choy in the heated pan. Add enough water to coat the bottom of the pan. Cook until the bok choy leaves are tender and the stalk part retains some crunch. Remove from the pan and set aside.

4

Sauté halibut: Put olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Saute halibut in the pan until a thin crust formed. Turn to saute the other side. Remove from the pan and set aside.

5

Whisk yuzu in the reduced orange juice. Taste and let it infuse in the orange juice until emulsified.

6

Season shaved fennel and cherry tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper

7

Arrange baby bok choy leaves in the center of a plate. Put one piece of halibut on top. Place 5 cherry tomatoes around the center arrangement of bok choy and halibut. Place shaved fennel on top of the halibut. Pour orange yuzu emulsion evenly on the plate.

Notes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajxJ-4Yylro