More Fish For Cindy and Me - Halibut In Prosciutto Herb Cream Sauce And Cioppino For Thanksgiving

I HOPE YOU HAD A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS

As I continue to work through our supply of frozen fish while Bev is gone, we had two remaining pieces of Halibut and we opted to cook them using the recipe for Halibut In Prosciutto Herb Cream Sauce from the “La Bella Vita” blog.  The two pieces of fish were very different which is one of the reasons I cancelled my subscription from Wild Alaska Seafood Co. as I believed I was just getting the leftovers for a very high price. 

For the dish, we ran by Benton’s Tennessee Country Ham to pick up their version of prosciutto and I cut Roz’s recipe in half to get the one below.

Halibut In Prosciutto Herb Cream Sauce – Adapted from La Bella Vita

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/8 cup sliced green onions/shallots

2 large cloves, garlic, minced

2 halibut fillets

2 slices prosciutto, cut into strips

1 Tbsp. lemon zest

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh Italian Parsley

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh chives

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/8 tsp. salt

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 stick butter

1/4 cup heavy cream

juice of 1/4 a lemon

1 Tbsp. capers

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (to keep fish warm while preparing everything else).

In a medium skillet, warm 1 Tbsp. olive oil.

Saute the green onions/shallots and minced garlic. Do not brown the garlic.

In a medium bowl, mix together the lemon zest, Italian parsley, chives, pepper and salt.

Place the halibut fillets onto the mixture and coat all of the sides of the fish.

Place the herb-coated fish into the olive oil-shallots-garlic mixture in the skillet.

Toss in any remaining herb mixture to the skillet.

Cook the fish for 2 minutes on each side or until slightly golden. Do not overcook.

Place fish in an oven-proof dish in the hot oven while preparing the rest of the ingredients (for the sauce).

In the skillet that the fish was cooking in, place the prosciutto slices in whatever onions, garlic, and herbs remain. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Remove prosciutto and put to the side.

In the skillet, add the wine.

Cook the wine down to about a quarter cup of liquid.

Add the butter, cream, lemon juice, and the capers.

Re-add the prosciutto slices back into the sauce and warm.

Return the fish to the pan and top with the sauce.

The Verdict:

Ho-hum, just another great fish meal and we will make it again.  We just sided it with a Cindy salad but it could have been served over a starch to go with the sauce.  I used the leftover sauce for some delicious scrambled eggs the next morning.

Thanksgiving Cioppino (Seafood Stew)

As a non-fan of turkey or traditional Thanksgiving fare, I try to still make it a special meal while preparing something I (we) really like and, of course for Cindy and me, that means seafood.  And as it turns out, our neighbors, Pat and Steve, and good buddy Joe are also fans so they joined us as did Cindy's friend Ernie.  It was a great meal to make while non-fish-lover Bev was gone but I couldn’t think of any other friends to invite who will eat poached seafood.  I made the Cioppino using the same recipe asa year ago when Joe said it may be the best thing he’d ever eaten I but used more ingredients to go from four to seven servings (I wanted some leftovers).  I won’t repeat the recipe here but you can click on the link above.  According to the web, Cioppino was invented in San Francisco by Italian fisherman so we went with the Italian motif for the meal.

We began our meals with Santa Margherita Prosecco and sweet rose to go with our bruschetta and delicious tossed salad (provided by Pat).  For the bruschetta, I diced some Roma tomatoes the mixed them with EVOO, balsamic vinegar, pepper and Italian seasoning.  After adding them to the toast, I seasoned them with salt just before serving.

I made up the cioppino broth a day early so the flavors could marry then had it simmering while we ate our salads so all I had to do was add the seafood, cover, and cook about eight minutes.  This is the cooking set up.

Rather then cook it in our 16 qt pot, to make serving easier, I cooked the seafood in a hotel pan over two burners with each ingredient in a section of the pan then I covered it with another pan.  

This way, I could easily add 3 clams, 3 mussels, 4 shrimp, 2 scallops, 3 pieces of cod to each bowl then ladle in the broth.  I cooked the mussels and clams for three minutes, then cooked the other seafood for five more minutes.

I served the cioppino with some baguette for dipping in the broth.

Then we finished off the meal with Cindy's Pumpkin Chiffon Pie and Joe's wife sent us a coconut cream pie both of which were delicious.

Certainly not a traditional Thanksgiving meal but I believe we all enjoyed the food and the visiting and my cooking set up worked perfectly.  So now I'm thinking about what to have for a non-traditional Christmas Meal even though I do enjoy ham.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

11/25 & 11/27/25 event dates