Cooking for Pleasure: Rockfish in a wine cream sauce

Ready to eat rockfish in a wine cream sauce. (Photo by Patty Schied)

By Patty Schied

Last week I was in the mood for some white fish but didn’t want it deep-fried. So I purchased some rockfish at a local store, sauteed it in some oil then made a luscious wine cream sauce to pour over it. A nice aspect of this recipe is that it takes only minutes, making it great for a weeknight dinner and one that can be proudly served to dinner guests. 

It happened that the rockfish I purchased was nearly an inch thick. This meant I couldn’t cook it through by sautéing it in the fry pan without overbrowning it. So I preheated the oven to 300 degrees and after browning the fish, placed it in a baking dish and into the oven to finish cooking while I made the sauce. 

The resulting fish was perfectly cooked without being either dry and flaky or underdone. Two pounds of fish served four people generously, although my grandson would have liked seconds. 

Raw fish and ingredients. (Photo by Patty Schied)

Ingredients for four servings:

• 2 pounds of rockfish or other white fish, such as halibut or lingcod

• Salt and pepper

• Flour for dusting

• Oil for sautéing the fish (approximately a half cup)

• Ingredients for the sauce:

• 1 large shallot finely chopped

• ½ cup of finely chopped parsley

• ½ cup dry white wine

• ½ cup heavy cream

• ¼ cup cold butter, cut into small pieces

Sauté the rockfish. (Photo by Patty Schied)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Have an ovenproof serving dish ready.

• Cut fish into serving pieces. Salt and pepper then dust lightly with flour. Heat oil in large frying pan until it sizzles when fish pieces are placed in it. Cook fish until it is brown on each side, then place it in a baking dish and into the oven to finish cooking while making the sauce.

• Note: If your fish filets are thin, there is no need to finish cooking in the oven if the fish is fully cooked after sauteing.

• Next, pour off the cooking oil from the fry pan but leave in the “fond” (the brown bits in the fry pan). At medium/low heat add two tablespoons of butter. When melted, add finely minced shallots to the pan and cook slowly until the shallots are translucent but not brown. 

• Add ½ cup of dry white wine, increase heat to medium and reduce mixture by half.

• Add heavy cream and continue to cook until sauce is reduced and slightly thickened. Turn off heat and add remaining butter and half of the chopped parsley. Rapidly whisk remaining butter into sauce.

• Remove baking dish from the oven. Pour sauce over cooked fish and sprinkle remaining parsley on top.

• Serve with cooked rice or your favorite starch.

• Patty Schied is a longtime Juneau resident who studied at the Cordon Bleu in London and has written a cookbook. Cooking For Pleasure appears every other week in the Juneau Independent's features. She welcomes questions about her column at patschied@yahoo.com.