From Quince to Shark: fish poached in flavored oil

When I was a kid (I seem to be saying that a lot these days, don't I?), there was a word game that would appear in the papers every now and then. You would start with one word, and have to get to a final word, by changing one letter in the word, each round, but still getting a word that made sense. You could go, for example, from cart, to care, to pare to pore to pope. I don't see that game happening anymore, for who knows what reason.

I bring that up because I don't want anyone to assume that we're going from quince to shark in that way. No, we're not going to do anything that difficult.

During our most recent trip to San Francisco, we ate at the restaurant called Quince for the first time. It was the first time we had been able to get a reservation. It was a wonderful experience, and I'm going to get to the food in a minute, but first, tell a story that may amuse you.

You know how restaurant websites frequently have information on how to dress? Well, as a general rule, Guy and I ignore that information. We dress in business casual for most restaurants, unless we know the place very well, and we know that it's casual. It has to be both. So, while we know Telepan very well, we would never wear jeans there. So when the website for Quince said "Jacket preferred," we laughed. We have not worn jackets to a restaurant in San Francisco (where we've seen people wear jeans in restaurants with a three figure prix fixe) in years.

Uh, we should have done it here. When you walk into a restaurant and the busboys are wearing navy blue suits, white shirts, and rep ties, that's a good sign that you should have taken the information seriously. Still, we were by far not the most casually dressed people there that night, and no one made an issue of our attire. The service and the food were impeccable, and the busboys , servers and staff were all very handsome.

Now to the food. Quince's menu understates things. There is very little information about how the food is prepared, so there is a surprise when it comes out. Guy had halibut (as a general rule, if he's not eating calamari, Guy is eating halibut). It was such silky, luxurious tasting fish, that I asked "was this done sous vide?" My response was "No, it was poached in flavored oil. "

Hmmm. Well... when we got home, it was the first thing I tried to duplicate. And it's easy. Time consuming, and wasteful, but easy.

In a very early blog, I taught you all how to make oil cured tuna confit. None of you made it , but that's okay. The technique here is fairly similar. You can use any firm white fish to do it. Halibut is basically the "go to " fish of the West Coast. It seems to always be in season. It was in season in the spring, when we were there, and it was in season in the fall. ATLANTIC halibut is a prohibited catch, however, as it has been overfished. So, you make your choice: eat locally, or buy halibut air shipped from the West Coast. I decided to go with the former. I was going to make it with cod.

Well, one of the things you learn with eating locally is that you sometimes have to substitute. When I went to the fish guy , no cod. I was, frankly, stunned. Cod is the East Coast's halibut: you can ALWAYS get it. Not that day. But he had something called "summer shark." I investigated. It was not an endangered species of shark, and while misnamed (it was already fall), it would suit: firm, and white and solid, like halibut. Inexpensive too. I brought my pound home with me, and got to work. Here's how I did it.

To see how much oil you're going to need, put the fish in a pan, in a single layer. Then, pour in oil until it covers the fish by about a quarter of an inch. Now, take the fish out. Leave the oil in, and add the peel of a lemon (no surgical precision here), a few branches of thyme, and about a dozen whole black peppercorns. Turn the heat to VERY low. You don't want to fry these ingredients. Let the thing cook away for about fifteen or even twenty minutes. If , during that time, you see even ONE bubble in the oil, lower the heat some more. After that time, drain the oil so that the solids are gone, and let it cool. You do need to let it cool, unfortunately. No time saver here.

When you're ready to cook, put the fish back in the pan and cover it with the oil. This time, add about a hefty teaspoon of salt. Bring the oil back up to temperature the way you did when you infused it, and let the fish cook for fifteen, or even twenty minutes. It's a very slow process, but it makes a very tasty final product. The flavors that have gotten into the oil, get into the fish, and the oil itself enriches a fish that is naturally very low in fat (the white fishes like cod, haddock, halibut, flounder, etc are all low in fat).

Take your fish out of the oil, let it drain a bit, and serve it forth.

The wastefulness comes from the fact that this oil , unfortunately, cannot be reused. If you have a cat, you might be able to get him or her to eat some of it, but it's not likely. So, don't use the most expensive olive oil you have. You should use extra virgin, and treat this as a bit of an extravagance, but if you're not going to spend money on your food, well, why are you reading this blog?

ENJOY