Fish with Citrus Sauce

 

This goes well with baguette or Flatbread Greek style and a cool white wine.

Attention! The recipe takes around 60 to 90 minutes preparation time!

Preparation You'll need: A pan with lid A small pot A potato peeler, such as this one (I really like it).
Ingredients for the Orange Butter Sauce (for 2 persons) 4 medium or 3 large organic oranges (also for the zest) 1 lemon 175 millilitres white wine (dry) 150g butter 1 shallot Salt and ground white pepper
Ingredients for the vegetables (for 2 persons) 1 thin long courgette 1 or 2 medium sized carrots 3 spring onions (it's the leaves that are needed) Around 10 cherry tomatoes (depending on size) 2 boxes of garden cress olive oil salt
The fish 2 salmon loins, Sushi quality (to sweat on just one side), if one doesn't like dry or fried fish, or: 2 steaks of fish (to fry), like (albacore) tuna (ea. around 150 to 200 grams), swordfish (ea. around 250 grams if with bones) or similar olive oil
Starting with the citrus sauce Zest one orange and the lemon completely (around 7 g each), then fillet one half of an orange (remove the skin completely), finally press the remainder of the oranges for the 250 ml juice. Pour 175 ml white wine in a small pot, add zest and orange juice. Finely chop the shallot, also add to the saucepan and start reducing straight away, over a medium heat. Set the orange fillets in a small dish on the side. Put 150 grams of butter in small pieces into a dish and put that back into the fridge.
Reducing the citrus sauce Cook on medium to high heat, reduce to a syrupy consistence. This might well take 30 minutes. In the mean time you can continue with the veggies, but don't forget to stir the sauce every now and then. ;-)
Preparing the veggies Cut 1 or 2 carrots and the courgette into thin slices - you could take the potato peeler mentioned above for that. Cut the green leaves of 3 spring onions into 4 or 5 centimetres long pieces. Leave the 10 cherry tomatoes as they are. Rinse the cress and keep on the side for when everything is on the plate.
Cooking the veggies You can start with this 10 minutes later... First, turn the oven up to 80℃ and put in a medium ceramic bowl (big enough for the vegetables). Put a good amount of olive oil in the pan, switch to medium heat (not higher!). Put in the carrot slices, cover, after 5-8 minutes add the courgette slices and the spring onion leaves, lightly salt. Cover and let the whole thing simmer gently, maybe even go down to low heat. Timing-wise, this roughly fits the finishing of the following sections. Towards the end, test a piece of carrot, the vegetables should be soft, but still "al dente". Then transfer to the preheated bowl and into the oven to keep warm. Now switch back to the butter sauce, but turn the vegetables every now and then.
Adding the butter to the orange syrup (as soon as the citrus sauce is thick enough) Take the butter out of the fridge and stir it in with a whisk in small portions (about one to two tablespoons), stirring constantly over a low heat. The sauce must not boil! This will take about 5 minutes, don't forget to turn the vegetables. In between, salt the vegetables and add the tomatoes.
Prepare the fish When you're done with the butter sauce, turn the heat down to low, season with salt and white pepper to taste, stirring occasionally. Salt the vegetables and put them in a bowl when ready. Put it in the oven at low heat - you can also put the plates to warm them up. Wipe out the pan just briefly with a kitchen towel and then use it for the fish Sweat the salmon Sweat the salmon in some olive oil on medium heat (covered). Sweat only until the top doesn't look complety raw anymore. Do not turn, serve as it is then. Or: Fry the tuna / swordfish Fry the fish on medium heat until it's well done. Salt lightly. When you're done (or the fish), arrange everything a your plates (don't forget the orange fillets ;-), cut the cress with scissors and sprinkle them on top of the veggies. Serve with cold white wine and some fresh white bread.