Tired of all that heavy stuff? A lovely Halibut salad for your Shavuot lunch!

 

Halibut Salad

A very mild fish salad that gets its kick from cocktail sauce.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 ½ pounds center cut fresh halibut*
• 1 large onion
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 black peppercorns
• 2 large lemons
• 4 large stalks of celery
• 1 cup or more mayonnaise
• 2 12 ounce bottles cocktail sauce

* Ask your fishmonger to remove the bone and tie the pieces together.

DIRECTIONS

1. Rinse fish. Place it in pan and cover ¾ of fish with water.
2. Peel and quarter onion. Add onion, bay leaf and peppercorns to water. Bring water to a boil and quickly reduce it to a simmer. You should barely see the water moving and there should be no odor at all. Poach fish until it is completely opaque. If the halibut is very thick, you should turn it over once during poaching. (Don’t worry about breaking the fish, you are going to flake it anyway.)
3. Remove poached halibut from liquid and place in mixing bowl. Peel off skin. Squeeze lemon juice from both lemons over freshly poached fish. Let it cool completely before flaking it.
4. Wash celery vigorously. Make sure to scrape out all the dirt in the veins. Dry celery stalks and dice. You should have 3-4 cups of celery. Mix diced celery with the flaked halibut. Add one cup of mayonnaise. Mix well. The salad should hold together on a fork. Add more mayonnaise if you prefer the salad to be more moist.
5. Line serving platter with lettuce leaves. Mound the halibut salad in the center. Decorate platter with sliced peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and olives. Serve cocktail sauce and crackers on the side.