Five-Peppercorn Fish Fillets
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1teaspoon black Tellicherry peppercorns
- 1teaspoon dried whole green peppercorns
- 1teaspoon rose (pink) peppercorns
- 1teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
- 1teaspoon Timut peppercorns
- 4tablespoons unsalted butter
- 12fresh sage leaves
- Salt
- 4boneless halibut, sea bass or grouper fillets, about 6 ounces each
- All-purpose flour, for dusting
- 2tablespoons olive oil
- ½teaspoon lemon zest or lime zest
- 1tablespoon lemon juice or lime juice
- Tender parsley or watercress sprigs, for garnish
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
342 calories; 21 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 9 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 5 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 0 grams sugars; 34 grams protein; 473 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Put all the peppercorns in a small dry skillet over medium heat. Warm them, shaking the pan, until fragrant, a minute or two. Cool, then transfer to a mortar or electric spice mill. Pound with a pestle or pulse in the spice mill, shaking, to obtain a coarse powder. Reserve 1 tablespoon peppercorn mixture and store remainder.
- Step 2
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon peppercorn mixture and swirl pan until foamy and beginning to brown. Add sage leaves and a good pinch of salt. Set aside, off the heat.
- Step 3
Season fish fillets on both sides with salt and dust very lightly with flour. Put a wide cast-iron skillet over high heat and coat bottom with olive oil.
- Step 4
When oil is hot, lay the fillets in the pan and let them brown gently, turning down heat as necessary. After 2 minutes, flip fish and cook until no longer translucent when probed, about 2 minutes more. Transfer fish to a warm platter or individual plates.
- Step 5
Return butter sauce to stove over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer and add citrus zest and juice. Stir well, then spoon sauce over fish and serve immediately.
- It is worth seeking out the five different peppercorns that make up this spice mix, but feel free to use just one or two, or to refine the mixture to your own taste.
Private Notes
Comments
This easy recipe certainly punches above its weight. I make a slightly simplified version, all in one pan: Fry the fish, take it out, wipe out the pan, chuck in the butter and wait until it foams, stir in the crushed pepper (I usually just use 5-peppercorn blend), add the sage, then stir in the citrus zest, juice, and a pinch of salt, and spoon over the fish. Delicious.
This certainly did justice to a beautiful slab of wild-caught Nova Scotia halibut, which was a treat we rarely stumble upon where we live. I used all five peppercorns. If you have trouble locating a few of them, Penzeys has the green peppercorns, and I found the Timut online at Walmart of all places. The latter peppercorn, from Nepal, can be labeled in this country as Timut, Timur or Timir. The Nepalese don't use the Roman alphabet, and transliteration is an imprecise art.
Super tasty, however the fish took much longer than 4 minutes total to cook and got quite dry. The amount of pepper was also quite a lot more than the amount added to the butter -- it's unclear where the rest was supposed to go. That all aside, we'll still absolutely make it again! The butter sauce was great tossed with steamed romanesco (or cauliflower), too.
Cooked this last night with Halibut and will definitely make it again (need to acquire Timut peppercorns so we can include). Made polenta, mixed with a little Parmesan, and fried sage leaves on top as a side dish. Used the oil from the fried sage leaves to cook the fish, the sage infused EVO was an excellent, and only, tweak to the recipe.
Excellent. Easy recipe. Delicious made with Halibut. The pepper was a bit more than I needed and I had to split the fish I had bought into two fillets to make them thin enough to cook evenly, but it was a delicious dinner for very little effort. I used Penzey's 4 Peppercorn blend which was way easier than finding five different types when I live in a rural place. Can't imagine it would have been any better than what I had. five out of five for sure.
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