Sunday Dinner

In light of the fresh Halibut at my local store, and my desire to use the 'faux caviar' tapioca in practice, our Sunday dinner this week was:

- Pan Roasted Halibut with Balsamic Caviar, Crispy Polenta, Sunchoke Puree with a Roasted Beet and Fruit Salad

Halibut - marinate the filets (about 6 oz. portions, skin off) in a nice Spanish Arbequina olive oil as well as some lemon thyme. Season with salt, grains of paradise. In a hot (cast iron) pan, add olive oil, sear filets (herb side down) and then flip, and finish in the oven (firm not flaky). Rest.

Tapioca - use the technique from my previous post and soak in a mixture of 1/4 cup balsamic, 1/4 cup white balsamic, and 1 tsp. Worcestershire.

Polenta - heat a pan, add 1 Tablespoon of oil, minced garlic (1 clove) and 1/2 cup polenta. Toast about a minute. Add 2 cups water, cook until the liquid is absorbed. In a cool, oiled pan (sheet tray also works,) add the polenta, spread evenly and chill. Remove from the pan when set, cut into circles, sautee to color and crisp, finish in a 350 F oven.

Sunchoke Puree - skin and slice the (3 large) Sunchokes, simmer slowly in 1/4 cup cream, 1/4 cup milk until softened (careful not to burn.) Puree (add more cream if necessary.) Mount warm sauce with butter.

Beets - coat (2) Chiogga beets in olive oil, salt, pepper, and enclose them in foil and roast at about 350 F for an hour. Cool. Cut into squares/circles and slice thin.

Salad - dice asian pear, kiwi, pickled loquat (homemade,) and sun-dried tomatoes, and then toss them with sunflower seeds, salt, grains of paradise, and a chiffonade of Japanese mint.

Plate and enjoy!

I found the tapioca caviar added a nice acidic balance to the richness of the fish as well as the sunchoke puree, and the salad served as a nice contrast (temperature and flavor) to the fish/polenta. We paired this dinner with a really nice Fumaio (blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay) from Banfi.

Tapioca 'Faux Caviar'

Inspired by a technique I recently saw (over and over) on this season's Top Chef, I decided to try a little experiment today involving a 'faux caviar' made using tapioca pearls.

To begin, I needed some uncooked tapioca pearls (not the instant stuff that usually populates grocery store shelves) and my local Sun Harvest had just the stuff.

Before treating the tapioca to an assortment of flavorful baths, I added 1/2 cup of the pearls to 2 quarts of boiling water and cooked about 25 minutes (until the pearls were mostly translucent with an opaque center.)


When the pearls reached my desired level of doneness, I transferred them to a strainer and rinsed them in cold water. Once they had drained, I took approximately 1 Tablespoon of cooked pearls and added them to 2 Tablespoons of liquid. For this experiment I decided to test soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, white balsamic vinegar, chili oil and pomegranate juice. I let the pearls soak in their respective liquids for several hours at room temperature, before draining and tasting.

All of the liquids delivered beautiful color and the pearls look amazingly like caviar. While the soy, both balsamics and chili oil were delicious, I would change the pomegranate recipe from juice to pomegranate molasses in the future to achieve a more potent, sweeter flavor that the juice did not impart, although it did give them a lovely color.

These 'faux caviar' add nice flavor, gorgeous presentation, and could be used in many applications. They hold their shape and texture quite well and could be made and stored in an airtight container and refrigerated for several days.

Clockwise from top: pomegranate juice, soy sauce, white balsamic, balsamic and chili oil (center.)