A Little Bit Flay, A Little Bit Tsai

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Super Foods Friday? Uh, he went on vacation. Or something. In his place? A delightfully healthful meal with carrots, mango, halibut and macadamia nuts — or Macadamia Nut Crusted Halibut in a Spicy Carrot-Mango Broth over Soba Noodles. Hmmm, that’s a mouthful.

Like the title suggests, half the recipe is based on one by Bobby Flay (the carrot-mango broth that was originally paired with a potato-crusted halibut) and half by Ming Tsai (the macadamia nut crusted halibut in an Asian-fusion type sauce that I can’t remember right now). I took a little from column A and a little from column B and combined the two. Put them together and it was a tasty and amazing meal. And healthy! Ha! Take that Super Foods Friday.

Carrot Mango Broth
2 cups fresh (or packaged if you can’t get fresh) mango juice
2 cups fresh (or packaged if you can’t get fresh) carrot juice
1 tbsp toasted whole fennel seeds
2 tbsp toasted whole coriander seeds
1 habanero chile (or about a 1/8 – 1/4 tsp chili paste)
1 clove garlic, peeled and whacked open
Salt and pepper

spices
Toasting the seeds.

In a medium saucepan over high heat, combine the juices, fennel, garlic, coriander and chile and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer 20 minutes, or until reduced by half.

broth

Strain through a fine strainer and season to taste with salt and pepper. Sauce can be made to this point and the set aside while you cook some soba noodles and make the halibut.

soba
Noodles awaiting the boiling water.

Macadamia Nut Crusted Halibut
1 pound halibut, cut into 2 (8 ounce) portions
1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped in a food processor
Salt and black pepper, to taste
1 egg white
2 tbsp vegetable or canola oil

Lay the 2 pieces of halibut on a clean work surface. Season each piece with the salt and pepper. Using a brush (or, hell, your index finger), quickly spread a thin layer of the egg white on top of the fish and then sprinkle over the chopped macadamia nuts. Press the nuts into the fish to secure.

fish

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Heat a large saute pan coated with the oil to medium heat. Place the fish, macadamia side-down, in the pan and sear for 2-3 minutes, until the macadamias are golden brown. Now, this may be a little tricky and some of the nuts will fall off. Just do the best you can. And when you flip back over, try to get the spatula all the way under the fish and flip quickly. Any nuts that fall off, just stack back up on the fish.

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Flip the fish and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Place the fish in a baking dish and cook in the oven for another 6-8 minutes. Or, if you’re using an oven safe pan, just pop the pan in the oven.

fish3

To finish it all:
Cooked soba noodles
green onions and chopped cilantro for garnish

plated

Reheat your broth. Place some cooked soba noodles in a bowl and ladle some of the broth over. Place a piece of fish on top and garnish with diced green onion and chopped cilantro.

6 Replies to “A Little Bit Flay, A Little Bit Tsai”

  1. Wow… you “combined column A & B” quite well. I’ve just finished lunch and you’ve got me hungry for dinner! It looks delicious AND good for me — can’t wait to try it!

  2. Dolores: Thanks! Yeah, this was really, really good. I’m already thinking about when we can have it again! 🙂

  3. Thanks so much for this easy recipe! I made it last night and this is going in my top 10 dishes. I didn’t have whole coriander, and couldn’t find my organic cayenne pepper – so I subsituted the 2 tbsp of coriander seeds with 1.5 ground coriander and used mexican pico de gallo en polvo (powder) for cayenne – same difference. Also didn’t have a habanero chile, but I used Serrano. It was very very good! I can’t wait to go home and have leftovers.
    The sauce was amazing – what a great combo. Im looking forward to making it for someone else for lunch or dinner. Yum yum yum!!!
    I purchased all my other ingredients at Whole Foods – the halibut there is divine. Note: They dont carry Mango Juice. Had to go to Bristol Farms (although you can usually almost always find mango juice in latino markets)

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