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By Root 120 0

as you’re eating and keeps your palate alive and jumping. There are many ways to add acidity to a dish. Splash some vinegar into a braising liquid, add citrus to a butter sauce, or top a steak with pickled vegetables. Of course there’s always the squeeze of lemon, which is easy, complements almost any food, and is excellent with all things fried. Acidity, like salt, also helps to open up your palate and accept the flavors.

And finally, varying textures are critical to the success of a dish. These can be established in many different ways: Add crispy fried pork cracklings to a salad; add crunchy lettuces or vegetables to soft braises. The Slash-and-Burn Grouper is soft and delicate so I knew I wanted a crunchy garnish: crispy Crab Tater Tots. Always consider the textures in a dish and make sure you have contrasts.

Two final qualities of a dish’s composition are spicy and bitter. Bitter, like acid, can create a great counterpoint to richness. I use different lettuces, such as endive or radicchio, because they not only give that great flavor contrast to the dish, they also add texture and temperature contrast. A great example of this is garnishing a rich hanger steak with some lightly dressed arugula. When eaten together the sharp arugula will help cut through the bloody richness of the steak and give the dish some crunch.

Spice can be a tricky thing. What one person finds mild another may find nuclear. There are some ways to balance the heat so you can coax the depth of the flavor from a chile and not just be hit with raw heat. I am a huge fan of pickling chilies for that reason: pickling helps balance the heat with the addition of sugar and vinegar (see here). To me, spicy just for the sake of spicy is ridiculous. When used correctly, spice can help create great contrasts and flavors and really make food come alive. Just remember that heat does vary from chile to chile—one jalapeño can be fiery and the next one relatively mild—so tasting is the key. Also remember that most of the heat is in the ribs and seeds, which can be removed to temper their heat.

The following dish is an illustration of the simplicity and balance I’m trying to describe here, the sweetness of the fish, the sweet acidity of the lemon, the salty acidity of the caperberries, and the nuttiness and crunch from the almonds—all tied together with a simple butter, olive oil, and lemon sauce.

SLOW-ROASTED HALIBUT WITH FRIED CAPERS, CARAMELIZED LEMON, AND ALMONDS

Halibut can be a tricky fish to cook because it is so lean, especially Pacific halibut, which is what I recommend for sustainability reasons. Cooking it in a slow oven makes it harder to overcook the fish and helps maintain the delicate flavor of the halibut, which you can lose if you use very high heat. Also, I think halibut is a fish that should be cooked through, not well, but not medium-rare either; an internal temperature of 130° to 140°F is perfect.

I pair the halibut with a very easy butter sauce: seared lemon slices sautéed with crunchy sliced almonds, briny caperberries, and shallots and finished with garlic and parsley. It’s a classic quick Greek sauce, in essence. Some times I’ll add a tablespoon of chopped anchovies as well to give it another dimension of salty savoriness. I love the caramelized lemon: the heat releases its juices and seasons the sauce with a little sweetness. You can treat any citrus fruit this way.

Serves 4

4 halibut fillets, 6 to 8 ounces each, skin removed

Kosher salt

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 (¼-inch-thick) slices lemon

¼ cup sliced almonds

5 large caperberries, halved lengthwise

¼ cup thinly sliced shallots

1½ tablespoons is thinly sliced garlic

½ cup sliced flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 225°F.

Season the halibut fillets on both sides with salt. In a cold nonstick, ovenproof sauté pan that can hold all four fillets, pour in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Put the fish in the pan and rub the top of the fillets with the remaining 1 tablespoon