Peruvian-ish Halibut

I moved to Seattle from DC almost 3 years ago, and the food I miss most - hands down - is Peruvian chicken. Specifically from Pollo Rico. Specifically specifically quarter dark meat, extra green sauce, fries, coleslaw, with a Sprite, eaten cross legged while sitting on the floor in front of my coffee table on a Sunday afternoon POTENTIALLY suffering from being over-served the evening before. (It's happened). Who's with me?!?

You think this would be a recipe for Peruvian chicken, right? It's not. We recently won the friends of friends of friends lottery and got a bunch of freshly frozen halibut, spot prawns, and dungeness crab from a family who goes on a yearly Alaskan fishing trip. They haul in so much fish that somehow even we get a piece of it - trickle down fishenomics. I was looking up different halibut recipes, but I just kept thinking about how I really wanted to eat it with this green sauce. So I made a few adjustments to my favorite Peruvian-style roast chicken marinade, threw the fish in, whipped up the green sauce, and hoped for the best!

Thankfully it was delicious - you should make it too!

You is kind, you is smart, you is important

You'll need:
For the fish:
 3 T extra virgin olive oil
Juice from 2 limes
4 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/2 T kosher salt
2 t paprika
1 T cumin
1 t dried oregano
1 t sugar
1-2 lbs halibut (cod or swordfish would work, too)

For the green sauce:
 [Note - the original recipe calls for sour cream and mayonnaise, but I use all Greek yogurt and it is still super delicious]
2 or 3 jalapeno peppers, seeded (I keep about half of the seeds)
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3/4 cup Greek yogurt
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 t salt
2 T extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 F, and place rack in the center. Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a blender/food processor and blend until smooth. Pour over your halibut. Simple enough. You think I could've remembered to take a picture before putting it in the oven, amirite?

Epic food blogger styled photo

 Note that fish doesn't need to be (and really shouldn't be) marinated for a long time, like beef or chicken. I think it would be ok if the fish was marinated for about 30 minutes or so, but if you go much longer the lime juice might start "cooking" the fish. 

Cook the halibut for about 15-25 minutes, depending on the size of the fish. This hunk-o-halibut took about 20 minutes. 

While the fish is a-bakin, combine all of the green sauce ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Transfer sauce to a bowl and allow it to thicken up in the fridge while you wait for the fish to bake. 

After the fish is done, allow to rest for about 10 minutes. I don't know if this is necessary, but I just did it. 

See? Peruvian-ish!

I served mine alongside some roasted root veggies and steamed broc, and went nuts with the green sauce.

So nice I posted this picture twice