Halibut, Chard and Potato Casserole

- Total Time
- 1 hour 45 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1medium onion, chopped
- 2garlic cloves, minced
- 114-ounce can chopped tomatoes, with juice
- Salt
- freshly ground pepper
- 1generous bunch Swiss chard 1¾ to 2 pounds, stemmed and washed
- 1pound Yukon gold potatoes or fingerlings, scrubbed and sliced
- 1cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped ½ cup chopped
- 2pounds Pacific halibut or Arctic char fillets
- ½cup dry white wine
Preparation
- Step 1
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Oil a heavy lidded casserole or Dutch oven.
- Step 2
Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat in a medium skillet and add the onion. Cook, stirring often, until tender, about 5 minutes, and stir in the garlic. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to a minute. Stir in the tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring often, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the tomatoes have cooked down slightly and smell fragrant.
- Step 3
Meanwhile, steam the chard for 2 to 3 minutes, until just wilted. Rinse briefly with cold water, squeeze out excess water, and chop coarsely.
- Step 4
Place a spoonful of the tomato sauce in the bottom of the casserole. Season the potato slices with salt and pepper and arrange in a layer in the bottom of the casserole.
- Step 5
In a large bowl toss together the chard, salt and pepper, and parsley. Lay half of this mixture over the potatoes. Season the fish fillets with salt and pepper and lay on top of the chard. Pour half the tomato sauce over the fish. Top with the remaining chard mixture and pour on the remaining tomato sauce. Pour in the wine and drizzle on the remaining olive oil. Cover tightly and place in the oven.
- Step 6
Bake 1 hour, until the potatoes are tender. Serve hot or warm.
- Advance preparation: You can make the tomato sauce up to three days ahead. You can assemble this casserole several hours before you bake it. Refrigerate until ready to bake.
Private Notes
Comments
This is a healthy dish and the flavors are scrumptious, but I think the cook time should match the star ingredient -- the fish -- and not the potatoes. I used a mandolin and still ended up with slightly under-cooked potatoes. Meanwhile, the halibut, while moist, was no longer sweet and tender. My advice: steam the potatoes before adding them to the casserole and take the dish out of the oven as soon as the fish is done.
I am not sure where to start, except that after two bites, my husband and I looked at each other, walked into the kitchen and promptly scraped our plates into the garbage. $30 worth of cod, ruined by this recipe. I had some reservations, as I do with most MRS recipes, as they seem to lean far towards "healthy" & far away from flavorful. I followed the recipe exactly, except for the addition of some bacon to the chard, which I lightly sauteed. It was incredibly watery and tasted only of chard.
We found this disappointing. It was rather bland. Might be better with a little more kick from spices or aromatics.
This worked out well. I microwaved the thinly sliced (~2mm) potatoes for five minutes, and with ~1.5lb thick halibut steaks, it took 45 minutes at 350F for the fish to be fully cooked. The potatoes were perfectly done. I put the steamed chard through a salad spinner twice to reduce the liquid content, so there was some liquid at the end but it didn't reach the fish. I used x2 the amount of tomatoes, and would do the same again for the extra flavor.
This was delicious. I found it needed a bit more tomato sauce. And I didn’t pre-cook the Swiss chard because it steams while the final dish is cooking in the oven.
Too wet as instructed. Roast potatoes separately and bed fish open faced in the sauce with capers.
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