Halibut Meunière with Orzo and Sauteed Zucchini

From what I have read it looks like working more fish rich in Omega 3 into my diet would be good for my heart and my brain.   I like seafood a lot and try to cook fish for dinner about once every two weeks or so.    I recently discovered that shrimp is relatively high in cholesterol and this was a surprise.   Well, I don't mind cooking less shrimp and more fish like Halibut.   Salmon season will be starting in less than two weeks and I am looking forward to fresh wild salmon!

Halibut season is already here and I decided to make a new recipe tonight, Halibut Meuniere.   This recipe had many positive reviews on myrecipes.com, but my wife and I did not like this dish.   I don't think there was anything wrong with the flavors but several other things seemed to go wrong prior to serving this dish.

Photo: Randy Mayor, Styling: Cindy Barr

First of all, the Whole Foods I shop at in Campbell, CA is very small and sometimes they run out of things.   The only fresh halibut left by the time I got to the store today were a few end pieces which were probably too thin for this dish to turn out well.    They were too thin for me to cut the skin off and I think this recipe would work better without skin on the fish.

The second issue was that I used a new frying pan.   I could not get my usual pan clean after I used it last time and my wife bought me a new pan.   This pan has a heavier handle and it tilts back a little leaving the part of the pan on the far side of the handle lifted off the burner a tad.   So, the stuff on that side of the pan did not get cooked as well.   So some pieces were not cooked as well as others.

The third issue is that the burner on my electric range top is not level and so the oil or in this case the butter in the pan flows to one side of the pan.   I hate that.   And the problem was worse because of the tilting pan.

I cooked about 24 ounces of halibut and we ate half of it, but I threw the rest out and will have to come up with a plan B for tomorrow nights dinner.  At least this was a healthy dish... low fat, low sodium.

On a more positive note, the orzo turned out fine.   I cook the orzo according to the instructions on the package, and then after I cook and drain the orzo, I add about a tablespoon of butter for every 6 ounces (dry) of orzo and about 1/8 teaspoon of salt, and 2 or 3 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley.

The zucchini I sautee in olive oil and I sprinkle some salt on the zucchini while it is being sauteed.

The orzo and zucchini were good, and I have enough left over that I can use them as left overs for whatever I come up with as the main dish for tomorrow night.