Poached Halibut, Creamy Celery Sauce & Tomato Relish

DIRECTIONS

• Celery Sauce -- In a small sauce pan, add the celery and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium heat, cover, and cook until the celery is tender. The celery will be pureed, so you want it tender, but NOT "mushy." It should take about 10-12 minutes.
• Fish and Broth -- As the celery cooks, prepare your fish and the broth. Remove the fish from the refrigerator so it comes to room temperature. For the broth, In a medium size sauce pan (enough to add the 4 fillets and you want the broth to cover the fish), add the lemons, garlic cloves (give them a light smash with the back of your knife or with the palm of your hand), ginger, wine, broth, thyme sprigs, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil and then immediately turn off the heat and cover. The broth will be ready in just a couple of minutes.
• Celery Sauce: Drain the celery and reserve just a teaspoon or two of the water. Transfer the celery to a food processor or blender and puree until smooth, you can use a little of the water if necessary. Just let it sit for a few minutes as you make the cream sauce.
• In that same pan you cooked the celery in, add the butter and shallots and cook a minute on medium heat. Then add in the flour and cook another minute to get rid of the flour taste. Slowly add in the milk and heavy cream and whisk until well blended and the sauce begins to thicken. Add in the celery, fresh thyme, salt and pepper to taste. The sauce is done. Just reduce to low and set on the back burner.
• Fish -- Bring your broth back up to medium heat, you don't want it boiling, just a medium simmer. Add the fish, reduce to medium low and cover. Halibut will take about 8 minutes per 1" of fish. The cooking time will depend on the size of your fish fillets.
• Tomato Relish -- As the fish cooks, make the tomato relish. Add the chopped tomatoes, capers, basil, olive oil, and pepper to a small bowl and mix until well combined.
• Serve -- This is how I love to serve this dish. A small bed of micro greens or spring greens, then the fish topped with the celery sauce and then the tomato relish. But you can omit the greens if you want. I have also served the sauce on the bottom of the plate with the tomato relish on top and the micro greens on the side. Either way -- ENJOY!