The halibut at my local fishmonger looked amazing so I switched up my plan to purchase swordfish and wrapped up a 1.5lbs slab of the pearl white fish flesh. After a quick online search for cooking inspiration, I landed on a recipe from Chef Alison Roman’s book Dining In (everyone should own this book).
She calls for using mustard greens, which I know I can’t find easily so I substituted pea shoots. I also had some fresh picked yellow tomatoes that needed to be used up and added them as well.
The cooking here features soy sauce, so use the best you can find. I was watching the Salt episode from Chef Samin Nosrat’s Netflix series Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (book by the same name is worth a read too) and managed to find the artisan soy she discovers on her trip to Japan. It’s called Yamaroku 4 year aged and is available on Amazon. Amazing stuff.
The process involves marinating the fish in soy, rice vinegar and water for a couple of hours (I do it in a ZipLock bag). Then you toast some sesame seeds in a large pan, dump them into a small bowl when they’re golden, and then bring some sesame oil, soy and water to a simmer in the same pan. Take the fish out of the marinade and place it in the simmering liquid and cover for 5-7 mins.. Don’t let it boil.
Add pea shoots and tomatoes (or mustard greens if you follow recipes word for word) and cover for 2 more minutes. Place the fish, shoots and tomatoes on a platter, add the juice of a lime plus some of the fish marinade to the pan, swirl a bit, reduce and spoon over the fish. I served it with some sushi rice. So great!