Will It Be Sous Vide? Halibut Stuffed With Crayfish
Welcome to this week’sWill It Sous Vide? , the weekly column that I usually do whatever you want with my immersion circulator.
Seafood was a hugely popular topic this week , with all kinds of fish, both finned and shell, discussed and suggested. I was tuned in for lobster, but then I saw tag007’s suggestion:
I was immediately carried away by the idea of shoving a sea creature without fins into a fin, and by chance there was some meat from crayfish tails in the freezer. I defrosted it – using my Anova of course – and cooked up some minced seafood.
Honestly, you don’t have to use crayfish – crab or shrimp will work too, but I’ve been looking for a use for this product for a long time. To make a delicious tail meat mixture, I mixed the following:
- 8 ounces cooked crayfish tails
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- Green portion of green onion, cut into thin slices
- 1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley
- Zest of one small lemon
- Salt and pepper for flavor
I put everything in a basin, trying to keep the tails as intact as possible.
For the fish fins, I chose halibut. My dad moved to Washington State when I was a teenager, but prior to that my experience of eating seafood was mostly southern, with lots of catfish, fried oysters, and (obviously) crayfish. I remember well the first time my stepmother cooked halibut for us after spending a day reading Powell’s books. It was drastically different from any fish I have ever eaten, totally delicious and in the spirit of the Pacific Northwest. So while you probably won’t find a lot of crayfish stuffed halibut on any menu, it makes sense to me given the varied cuisine of my upbringing.
Before that happened, however, I salted two 8oz fillets of hard white fish and let them roll for about half an hour while the immersion circulators heated their baths.
Then I made some pretty deep vertical cuts in each fillet (skin side down) and stuffed them into a delicious tail.
I then vacuum sealed each fish fillet in a separate small bag and dropped them into two different baths at two different temperatures.
Why two temperatures? This is called experimentation, my friends. I’ve never cooked fish this way before, and the two most trusted voices in sous vide cooking — Food Lab and ChefSteps — seemed to disagree on the best temperature for cooking halibut. ChefSteps recommends a 122 ° F chiller for all fish , including halibut, while the Food Lab uses a 130 ° F warmer for a denser and meaty texture. Having never tried either one, I decided to try both.
An hour later, in their little tubs, I carefully peeled the skin off, leaving the fillets in the bags while I did so to keep the filling from falling out. Then I fry the bottom of the fish in hot oil, then place it on a plate and drizzle on top with some gorgeous toasted butter.
As you can see in the picture above, the fish had a hard time keeping it together and it almost split into three separate pieces as soon as I took it out of the bag. This did not contribute to the most beautiful picture, but also did not have a negative impact on the taste.
So now you should know: will halibut stuffed with crayfish?
Answer? Why yes, my friends. Yes, it really will. As with anything I cook with an immersion circulator, this precise temperature control in my cooking environment allows me to cook a hybridized seafood dish according to my preferred cooking without fear of overcooking, which is always a pleasure.
In terms of temperature, I definitely prefer fish cooked at a higher temperature. Halibut is more of a meaty fish, and while it doesn’t look as steak-like as swordfish, I think it needs a little extra degrees.
Halibut cooked at 122 ° F was definitely okay, and definitely not dry, but it was soft and squeaky on the teeth, and the 130-degree halibut had larger, harder and tastier flakes. What about the filling? It was cool. The crayfish were already cooked, but they warmed up quite well as they lay inside the fleshy sides of the halibut, and all the flavors came together quite nicely. Basically, it was a success, and I swallowed it.