Ming Tsai (Did the recipe or the cook sink this dish?)

In today's class, I took on the Citrus Herbal Tea-Rubbed Halibut with Orange-Fennel Orzo Salad -- a fussy name for a fussy dish. Though I had a solid 2.5 hours from start of prep to service, and the method of cooking the fish was the quick sauté, I really didn't have much time to sit around.

First, I had to get the fish into the dry rub and then into the fridge to absorb as much flavor as possible. The main feature of the rub was dried citrus zest. With a micro-plane, I stripped two lemons, two limes and two oranges, and spread them on a silicone mat and into the convection oven at about 100 degrees. The recipe called for 225 for 1.5 hours, but the fan-action of the convection oven made quick work of the drying, maybe 15 minutes.

Into the rub went the dry zest, ground green tea leaves, powdery dried mint, dry lemongrass flakes, salt, turbinado sugar, and freshly ground ginger. I had a whole side of halibut to work with, and Chef A generously reviewed how to break it down. First split the top from the bottom, then remove the bones near the gut-cavity in one long piece (you lose a little flesh, but to try to take each bone out with a pair of pliers would take an hour AND tear up the fish). A few cartilaginous spots from the spine also had to come off. With the boning knife, I cut an angle through the flesh to the skin, then sawed the knife across against the skin while I pulled the skin towards me with a balled fish. Fwooooop, and the fish was skinned. From here, I cut trachons -- thick slices on the bias. Sheet-tray lined with parchment, scattered with rub, each piece dipped in rub, wrapped up, and put into the fridge.

The second component was the Orange-Fennel Orzo Salad. Boil up some orzo until tender, then shock in ice bath to keep from getting mushy. Juice a few oranges and a lemon, cut up 2 oranges worth of supremes, thinly slice a few bulbs of fennel (cored) and mix it all together with a healthy shot of olive oil. Tasted really bland, so I hit it was a couple of fistfuls of salt till it tasted like something.

The recipe called for canola oil, which I don't care for so much. I considered using clarified butter instead, but that wouldn't happen in Asian cooking. So I tried for peanut oil, but the commissary sent up toasted peanut oil, which would not do, though I added a shot of it to hopefully mask the canola.

I cleaned my station and set up my sauté, and by then it was about a quarter to 11. Hit the pans with the oils, then placed the rubbed fish on it. Fried each side for a good 3 to 4 minutes. Last time I sautéed multiple batches like this, I forgot to wipe down the pan and all the residual spices from the first batch burned and ruined the second batch. Not this time! I wiped down and cleaned the pans, reheated and reoiled, and all was well.

And in the end, the dish was....feh. It wasn't bad, but was definitely missing something. The orzo salad was a bit of a one-note flavor, the orange kind of overwhelming the fennel. The fish didn't taste much of anything, the green tea not really notable, a vague mint overtone, but kind of bland -- I should of doubled the salt in the rub, or hit it with salt right before cooking.

Tomorrow, Rick Bayless.

ADDENDA:

Stupid scale said 226. Stupid scale.

BREAKFAST: 7am, good granola with the good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTINGS: 11am, a few pieces of Chinese sausage, ginger butterfish, soba noodle sushi, Mongolian beef with black bean aioli, corn fritter, rice noodle stirfry, orzo with sausage and sambal, spicy shrimp with mango, achiote duck breast, halibut, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Food today was surprisingly good.

PM WATERING: 12noon, quart of ice water

DINNER: 5:15pm, extra-large green salad with balsamic, olive oil and a pinch of sea salt, whole wheat pretzels and good peanutbutter, ramakin of cream anglais ice cream, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5