Lingcod & Endive Salad over Squid Ink Lentils
ENGAGEMENT DINNER! We had the opportunity to celebrate our good friend's engagement by spearing a lingcod and cooking them dinner! I've wanted to incorporate some new techniques into my cooking and I got to go all out on this meal after planning each dish for almost a week!
The Menu
Appetizer: Candied Bacon Bits, Seared Scallop, Melted Brie, Charred Jalapeno and Crispy Garlic on Brown Butter Fried Bread with Truffle Oil Drizzle (Recipe Here)
Salad: Tomato, Caper, Avocado and Basil Salad with Balsamic Vinegar Pearls and a Black Coral Tuile (Recipe Here)
Main Course: Fresh Speared Lingcod over Squid Ink Beluga Lentils and Herbed Ranch on Seared Endive
Dessert: Deconstructed S'mores with Engagement Ring Graham Cracker Cookie (Recipe Here)
Fish:
Let the fillets marinate in olive oil, pepper and Italian herbs for 30 minutes (TIP: For almost all meats, you want to let them sit out of the fridge for 30 minutes to become less cold so you can get an even and accurate cook to them).
Coarse chop a couple cloves of garlic and add it to a pan with olive oil. Let the garlic heat up in the oil before adding the fillets. I cook the fillets with a lid on the pan over medium high heat. just before they are cooked all the way through, I flip it over and cook the other side for 1 minute or less (Tip: Don’t move the fish once you put it in the pan and don’t flip multiple times).
Velvet Black Lentils:
Beluga lentils
Water
50 g Olive oil, plus extra for cooking and finishing
40 g Butter
10 g Squid ink
3.5 g Salt, plus extra for finishing
Combine lentils and water in a ratio of 1:3 and cook on high in a medium covered pan until they are very tender. Place them in a good blender or food processor (do not strain). Add the rest of the ingredients and whip those puppies till they’re velvety. It’s not mandatory but if you want super velvety, push the paste through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. This puree will last for 5 days in the fridge if you need to make it in advance. If you freeze it, it will last much longer, but you’ll have to re-blend it or it will split. when heating.
Get a spatula or something flat and spread out the velvet lentils in a way that will look nice when fish is on top.
Endive:
Put a small bit of high heat oil (like vegetable/canola) in a stainless steel pan and get it ripping hot. Slice a few endives in half while it heats up. Sear them face down until they brown on the edges. with a brush, coat the endive with ranch dressing.
Put the fish and endive on the lentils. Add parsley, thin sliced (I use a mandolin) shallot and drizzle with lemon.