Halibut with Sour Cream, Onion, and Dill

This recipe comes courtesy of my good friend M. She sent it to me ages ago, and to be honest, I was slightly afraid of it. If you look below to the list of ingredients, you will see that mayonnaise is featured prominently. I thought it looked good in theory...but confronting that much mayonnaise head-on sent shivers up my spine. Instead of making it right away, I let it sit in my inbox for a while, stewing about how to get around my fear of mayo.

M originally got the recipe from her in-laws, who are from Seattle. Fish. Seattle. They go together. So this couldn't be bad, right? Just imagine M's parents sitting at a fantastic restaurant, probably with some great view of something awesome in Seattle, when they had their first bite of this fish. It was amazing. They loved it. They had to have the recipe! And they were bold enough to ask the chef for the recipe...and the chef gave it to them! I finally decided that something good enough to request a recipe of deserves to be made, regardless of my apprehensions.

So last week I buckled down and bought some mayo. And I made the sauce and slathered it on the fish, just like the directions said. And I baked it. And it looked pretty when it came out of the oven. And I took my first bite...and I waited. And I took another bite. And I was wrong, oh so very wrong! Mayonnaise isn't bad, it's delicious! It makes fish taste like something light and heavenly. It adds depth and tang to an otherwise boring piece of white meat. I loved it.

And it was good enough that maybe, just maybe, I would have also had the courage to ask the chef for the recipe. Luckily, you won't have to.

Halibut with Sour Cream, Onion and Dill
Recipe from M
Pictures by Caroline

4 7-8 oz. Halibut fillets (or other white fish)*
Juice of 1 lemon (about 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 cup sourdough bread crumbs**
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
2 tsp. Fresh dill, chopped
4 sprigs Fresh dill

1. Marinate fillets in lemon juice mixed with kosher salt for 15 minutes. Drain and coat each fillet with bread crumbs.
   
2. In a separate bowl, mix mayonnaise, sour cream, red onion and fresh chopped dill together. Spread on top of fillets like frosting. Place fillets on baking dish moistened with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 tablespoon water.
   
3. Bake at 350 for approximately 10-12 minutes, or until no longer translucent in the center. Garnish with dill sprigs.

*Halibut is expensive and tastes amazing. But I can't exactly afford to feed 5 hungry people large fillets of halibut very often. So we used tilapia instead. I'm sure the halibut would have been better, but when the wallet speaks, you listen.

**To make sourdough bread crumbs: Place chunks of day-old sourdough bread in food processor and process with steel blade. Because our bread was fresh, we lightly toasted the bread before blending it.