Tonight’s dish is another demonstration on how cooking sous vide makes meal preparation easier and basically foolproof. Have you ever overcooked a fillet of fish in a pan?  I bet you have and I know I have. Heck, I bet that anyone who has ever cooked fish has overcooked it at least once. Well, sous vide helps you by cooking it gently in a vacuum bag within a water bath – always done and never overcooked. After the water bath soak, the easiest and most fun part is all that is left – searing to add a little color before plating. But if you thought the mahi mahi is the star of this dish, you would be incorrect. The star of this dish is the sauce. This sauce has very few ingredients, but delivers on taste way outside the sum of those ingredients. I will not lie, this sauce is a little bit of effort, but hey… if you are using sous vide to cook the fish, you have a little bit of time to spend making this delightful sauce. Take a look at the results and you will see that sometimes that little bit of extra effort makes the difference. My eyes and my taste buds say it did for me tonight!

Set the water bath to 132 degrees F. Place a small saucepan with water over High/Medium-High heat. Setup a small bowl with cold water and ice to shock the blanched scallions. Salt and pepper the fillets on both sides then place into a recloseable bag. Add the sesame oil, if desired, and using the water displacement method remove the air and seal. Place the bag into the water bath for 30 minutes. While the fish cooks, heat the peanut oil in a small pan over Medium/Medium-High heat. Add the shallots and white portion of the scallions, cooking until softened but not browned, approximately 3 – 5 minutes.

 

Add the ginger and cook until fragrant, approximately 1 minute. Add the chicken stock and cook to reduce to less than 1/4 cup, approximately 10 minutes.

While the shallot mixture reduces, salt the boiling water in the small saucepan and blanch the green portion of the scallions and shock them in the ice water. Set these blanched scallions aside. When the sauce has reduced enough, strain into a small bowl, pressing the solids to get as mush liquid expressed as possible. In a small cylinder or glass that fits the end of an immersion blender, add the sauce, lemon juice, and blanched scallion tops. Blend until smooth, drizzling a slight amount of sesame oil toward the end to create an emulsion and set aside. Before the fish finishes cooking, heat a small pan over Medium-High/High heat. When the fish is cooked, remove from the water bath, open the bag, carefully retrieve the fillets and pat dry with paper towels. Add peanut oil to the pan and swirl to coat. Place the fish into the hot pan and allow to sear for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Carefully turn over and sear this side the same way. Remove to a serving plate and dress with the ginger scallion sauce prepared earlier.

Enjoy!