Food and Wine Recipe Series: A White Wine and Fish Menu for Summer!

We're celebrating summer's unofficial start with a fresh and flavorful pan-seared halibut and grilled spring onion menu that reminds us why white wine and fish is such a classic food and wine pairing!

"I love how fresh and flavorful this easy-to-prepare pan-seared halibut is, especially when drizzled with melted, bubbly lemon butter and served alongside tender grilled spring onions! It pairs beautifully with several of our Nickel & Nickel Single-Vineyard Chardonnays, however, it really sings with the bright aromatics, creamy palate and citrus-honeysuckle flavors of our Stiling Vineyard Chardonnay. You can also swap out the main with seared scallops or chicken with relative ease." - Executive Chef Sarah Walz

Pan-Seared Lemon Butter Halibut with Purple Potatoes and Charred Spring Onions

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 eight-ounce Alaskan Halibut filets

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (Canola can serve as a substitution)

4 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons lemon juice, fresh Meyer lemons preferred

2 large purple potatoes, peeled

5 tablespoons olive oil

6 spring onions

1 cup freshly-shucked peas

Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Method:

Add your peeled potatoes to a medium stainless-steel pot and cover with cold water. Add one teaspoon salt and simmer for 20 minutes or until tender. Remove the potatoes and place in a ricer. Add four tablespoons olive oil, along with a half teaspoon of salt and fresh cracked pepper. Gently stir together and set aside.

Heat grill to high and grill your whole spring onions until tender. You can also roast your onions for seven to ten minutes at 425 degrees. Remove the onions, drizzle with olive oil and finish with a sprinkle of kosher salt. Cut into coins or ½-inch slices, discarding any overly blackened pieces.

Steam fresh shucked peas. Set aside.

Pat your halibut filets dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper. Heat a large stainless-steel saute pan on high, add grapeseed oil to the pan and add the filets when the pan begins to smoke.. Reduce heat to medium-high and sear for five minutes, flesh side up. Season with salt & pepper, before gently using tongs to flip the fish. Cook on medium-low for three minutes, then add butter to pan and baste fish for one minute w cooking on medium low. After 3 minutes add butter to pan and baste each filet with melted, bubbly butter for one minute. Add lemon juice to pan and baste the fish with the lemon and butter pan sauce.

Prepare four plates by placing halibut directly atop a beautiful scoop of purple potatoes in the center of each plate. Spoon melted lemon-butter pan sauce over each filet. Â Add a scoop of peas along with the charred spring onions to the side, uncork a bottle of Nickel & Nickel Stiling Vineyard Chardonnay and raise a glass to the fresh flavors of spring and summer.

Download the recipe here.

Get the wine here.