Roast Halibut with Morels, Wild Garlic and Vin Jaune Cream

⏱ 50 min · Serves 4

A Jura classic reimagined: pearly halibut, glossy and just-set, sits in a sauce of vin jaune reduced with cream until it tastes of hazelnuts and orchard fruit. Morels bring the woodland depth, wild garlic the green snap of spring. Restaurant food, but the whole thing lands in under an hour.

Per serving: 595 kcal · 38.0g protein · 8.0g carbs · 43.0g fat

Ingredients

• 4 halibut fillets, skinless, about 160g each, 3cm thick
• 25g dried morels (or 150g fresh morels, halved)
• 150ml vin jaune (or a good dry oloroso-style Savagnin / fino sherry)
• 200ml double cream
• 2 banana shallots, finely diced
• 150ml light chicken or fish stock
• 80g wild garlic leaves, washed
• 40g unsalted butter, plus 20g for the fish
• 1 tbsp neutral oil
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Sea salt flakes and white pepper
• A few wild garlic flowers, to finish (optional)

Method

1. If using dried morels, soak them in 250ml warm water for 20 minutes. Lift out, squeeze gently, and halve any large ones. Strain the soaking liquid through a coffee filter or muslin and keep it. Fresh morels just need a quick rinse and a firm shake dry.
2. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Blanch 50g of the wild garlic for 15 seconds, refresh in iced water, squeeze dry hard, then blitz with 2 tbsp of the cream and a pinch of salt to a smooth green puree. Set aside.
3. Melt 20g butter in a saucepan, sweat the shallots with a pinch of salt over a low heat for 6-8 minutes until soft and not coloured. Add the morels and cook 3 minutes more.
4. Pour in the vin jaune and let it bubble down by half. Add the stock and 100ml of the strained morel liquor (if using dried) and reduce again by half.
5. Add the double cream and simmer gently for 8-10 minutes until the sauce coats a spoon. Whisk in the remaining 20g cold butter, season with salt, white pepper and the lemon juice. Keep warm off the heat.
6. Pat the halibut very dry and season both sides. Heat the oil in a heavy non-stick pan over a medium-high heat. Lay the fish in presentation side down and cook undisturbed for 4 minutes until deep golden.
7. Add the 20g butter, flip the fish, baste for 2-3 minutes, then rest it in the pan off the heat for 2 minutes. It should just flake at the thickest point and still look pearly.
8. Stir the remaining raw wild garlic leaves into the warm sauce for 30 seconds so they wilt but stay bright.
9. Spoon a comma of wild garlic puree onto each warm plate, set the halibut on top and flood around it with the morel and vin jaune cream. Scatter with wild garlic flowers and serve with steamed new potatoes or a spoon of buttered Vialone rice.