Three weeks of restaurant food ... It's a fish sort of night ...

I made it back home after another week on the road and I got home uncharacteristically early (2pm) so I decided to cook dinner.  I swung by Whole Foods on my way home and went directly to the fish counter.  Knowing that it was 80 degrees (thank goodness that Spring is finally here) I figured that I could convince Shells to join me on the patio, I picked up a dozen oysters (since it's that time of year) half Rappahannock Rivers and half Blue Points.  I also picked up a great looking piece of fresh Halibut.

Continuing on my approach to find an avocado oyster topper I tried something new again today.  I mixed up a mashed avocado with water, sriracha and a splash of Tequila.  The key to this sort of topper is to add water iteratively as you whisk the rest together to continue to smooth and thin the sauce to the consistency that you would like.

I put the sauce on top of the oysters and served them on a plate of crushed ice.  We enjoyed them with a nice 2011 Chablis.

For the dinner itself, I decided to go with a little bit of an Asian flair for our Halibut.  I started by making a rice dish to form the base.  I used some bamboo flavored rice for this, but you could use any sort of rice you wanted.

Spicy Shiitake Rice
12 medium/large shiitake mushrooms
1 serrano pepper (feel free to add more or less depending on how much spice you like)
1 cup rice
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp olive oil
2 cups water

Begin cooking the rice, put the rice and water in to a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Once the rice reaches a boil, reduce heat and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently to ensure no sticking.  While this is cooking, begin preparing the mixture for the rice.  Remove the stems and then slice up the Shiitake mushrooms, dice the serrano pepper.  Put the oil into a saute pan, and put the pan on medium/high heat.  When the oil is clarified and moves around the pan freely add the mushrooms and peppers to it.  Use a wooden spoon to continue to move the ingredients around as they cook to ensure no sticking.

After the 10 minutes has passed for the rice, cover the rice and continue cooking for another 10 minutes.

Once the mushrooms have released their water and then reabsorbed it they are ready to go into the rice.  If the mushrooms are sticking to the pan, a splash of white wine will help loosen them up.  Add the mixture and soy sauce to the rice after the 10 minutes of covered cooking has passed.  Remove from heat, cover and sit aside until ready to use.

I served the rice topped with braised red mustard greens, broiled Halibut topped with an avocado fromage blanc sauce & served with a broiled avocado filled with the same avocado fromage sauce and topped with some soy soaked serrano pepper slices.