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Something you may see is chicken halibut – chicken meaning young – weighing about 1 kg (2 lb). They are well worth eating and make an attractive dish for three or four people. Just trim off the fins and neaten the tail: the fishmonger will have cleaned them. Once or twice, I had smoked chicken halibut from the Hamburg shop in Brewer Street in London – now there no longer. It was lightly smoked. All you needed to do was to strip off the skin and serve it in thin slices with horseradish cream, bread and butter.

Don’t be fooled by long fillets of fish labelled Greenland halibut. They do come from a related flounder; the flesh is undistinguished, quite pleasant, but without the firm true sweetness of the real thing.

HALIBUT AND CHEESE GRATIN

This is a good way of cooking halibut with its tendency to dryness. Really you are putting a Welsh rabbit on top of the steaks to keep all the moisture inside. For me, it is very much a dish for midday, or family supper, when you might not otherwise be serving cheese. Provide new potatoes, or firm fleshed winter potatoes rather than the floury kind (p. 187), and a salad of mixed greenery that includes crisp and bitter leaves.

This is a good recipe, too, for cod and other firm white fish steaks.

Serves 6

6 halibut steaks

salt, pepper, cayenne

3 tablespoons melted butter

175 g (6 oz) grated Gruyère, Swiss or Gouda cheese

60 g (2 oz) grated Parmesan

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons single cream

Switch on the oven to gas 5–6, 190–200°C (375–400°F).

Season the halibut with salt, pepper and a good pinch of cayenne. Choose a gratin dish that will accommodate the steaks in a single layer, fitting them closely. Pour in the melted butter, swill it around the base and up the sides and arrange the halibut on it.

Mix the remaining items to a paste. You may need a shade more cream or mustard so that you can spread this paste more easily over the top surface of the fish, but it should not be liquid.

Bake for 15–20 minutes. If the cheese becomes brown quickly, protect it from burning by putting butter papers on top. When the halibut is cooked, serve the dish from the oven, sizzling hot.

HALIBUT AND COCONUT CURRY

The sweetness of spiced coconut milk goes particularly well with halibut, and the dish can be served cold. However, if you intend to do this, keep the sauce a little on the liquid side as it will thicken as it cools. To make coconut milk, turn to p. 478; otherwise, use creamed coconut which works well in highly spiced dishes. You can also buy tinned coconut milk.

Serves 4

1 chicken halibut or 4 halibut steaks, about 1 kg (2 lb) in all

concentrated butter, ghee or clarified butter

375 ml (12 fl oz) coconut milk

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 teaspoon rice flour or ground rice

1 teaspoon ground coriander seed

1 teaspoon turmeric

salt, cayenne pepper

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed, skinned, finely chopped

about 150 ml (5 fl oz) plain yoghurt

chopped fresh green fennel, dill or coriander leaves

Choose a heavy non-stick pan into which the halibut fits neatly. In it, cook the fish in the minimum of butter or ghee so that it is lightly coloured on both sides, but not cooked. Remove the fish to a plate. If the juices in the pan are still fresh and buttery, leave them. If not, wash the pan out.

Meanwhile, add the vinegar, rice flour, spices, salt and a little cayenne pepper to the coconut milk in a separate bowl.

Stew the onion slowly in the pan, adding extra butter or ghee if necessary. As it softens and turns yellow, stir in the garlic. Whisk up the coconut milk mixture with a fork, and pour it into the pan. When it begins to bubble, put the fish back and complete the cooking at a mild simmer. Keep spooning the sauce over the chicken halibut, or turn the halibut steaks for even cooking. If the sauce gets too thick and clotted, smooth it out with a little