Financial Celebration

Today I received some unexpected news.  For the last year and a half, I had been working under the presumption that I was going to be making graduate school payments until October of this year.  This month, however, when the payment hadn't come out of my checking account, I contacted the university only to find out that I was, in fact, done with my payments as of August.  Hooray!  This called for a nice dinner.  I emailed The Bride who indicated that she desired fish.  I perused the options, then picked out the Lemon Halibut With Caper Sauce on page 306.  After a quick trip to Findlay Market after school I had the necessary ingredients.  

The first thing to do was to make the "rub" for the fish.  

I gave it a brief whisking, and then the rub was ready.

I put the fish in the fridge, and started to ready the sauce.

With the sauce prepared, I moved on to the side dish of the evening, Summer Vegetables With Romesco Sauce on page 328.  

Similar to the fish, the sauce could be prepared in advance, so that is what I did.  I placed everything in a bowl, and retrieved the immersion blender.

WHHHIIRRRRRR!!!!!

I tasted the sauce, which according to the recipe was done.  Frankly, it tasted raw.  I made the executive decision to simmer the sauce for a while.  While it was on the stove, I realized that I was at a good stopping point and sat on the porch and read a magazine until The Bride came home.  Once she was settled in, I prepped The Forge and the vegetables.

The veggies came off of the grill and I put the fish on.

I chopped up the veggies, finished the sauce, and pulled the fish off the grill.  Once plated, I called The Bride to dinner and put the final sauces on the meal.

This was a nice meal to have in the middle of the week...or any day of the week for that matter.  The halibut was cooked perfectly, the rub was nice, but it was the lemon-caper sauce that sealed the deal.  It had a wonder briney-ness from the capers, terrific acidity from the lemon, and great texture from the parsley and sundried tomatoes.  This sauce would be great on most grilled fish.  It is, for lack of a better term, a keeper.  As for the vegetables, the sauce continued the theme of completion.  By themselves they were okay, but the romesco sauce "really tied the room together."  I fully acknowledge that it is probably supposed to be served raw, but I liked it much better after it simmered for about forty-five minutes.  The raw garlic flavor become much more mellow, and the tomato flavors became all the more complex.  Still, though, the sauce for the fish was the hit of the night.  I highly recommend it for anyone.