Swordfish with Tomato Caper Butter Sauce

I am going off topic this evening and share a fabulous recipe with you. As some of you know, it has been exactly one year since we closed our beloved Bistro des Copains in West Sonoma County, California. It was a labor of love for almost 9 years, not much profit, but it gave us a chance to share our love of great food, especially French food, and wine with lots of appreciative guests.

When I get to missing our food and friends at Bistro des Copains, we invite neighbors, some friends, or the kids who are always happy to eat Dad's food, head to the kitchen and set about fixing something fantastic to enjoy with a great bottle of wine or two.

As I have shared here before, I have a library with a collection of several hundred cookbooks, which continues to grow. So if I need some inspiration for my menu, it's not hard to find a new dish to prepare. Occasionally, I try to bake or make a dessert, but not very often.

Back in October, cousins Jean Marc and Christine came for dinner in Sablet and brought along an apple tarte tatin that she finished baking in our oven. I have had tarte tatins before, but never this good. So ever since, Shirley and I have been talking about trying to make an apple tarte tatin.

So last weekend, I decided to try my hand at apple tarte tatin. I looked through a bunch of cookbooks for apple tarte tatin recipes and decided to try the one in Thomas Keller's Bouchon cookbook. The result is below and it was very good, good enough that I will serve it to guests.

Apple Tarte Tatin

This morning as Shirley and I were drinking petit cafés before I left for work, she said she preferred to eat dinner at home tonight, something simple, maybe fish. So during the course of the day, I thought about what I would cook for dinner. By the time I got home, I had decided to do a variation of a dish I have prepared before with swordfish. The result is below.

Swordfish with Tomato Caper Butter Sauce

The resulting dish was as I said at the beginning of this post, fabulous. One of the best fish preparations I have tasted at home or in a restaurant. The dish would be equally appropriate for a menu here or in Provence. We can prepare it anytime as we have these ingredients on hand pretty much all the time except for swordfish. So here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon finely diced shallot
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1 cup cherry tomato halves. Recommend mixture of colors.
1/2 cup dry white wine. Recommend Sauvignon Blanc
2 tablespoon capers
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
8 tablespoons chilled diced unsalted butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
Salt and pepper to taste
4 (7 or 8 ounces) portions Swordfish (Shirley prefers them about 3/4 inches thick)

Directions for Tomato Caper Butter Sauce

1. Heat an 8-10 inch sauté pan over medium heat and add olive oil.

2. When the oil is hot, add the shallots and garlic and cook for 1 minute.

3. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring often for 1 to 2 minutes.

4. Add wine and deglaze pan and reduce until almost evaporated.

5. Add the capers and lemon juice.

6. Add butter pieces, a few at a time, until fully incorporated.

7. Add the chives.

8. Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat until Swordfish is cooked.

Directions for Swordfish

1. Heat 12 inch cast iron pan over medium high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

2. Season Swordfish with salt and pepper.

3. When olive oil is hot, add Swordfish and sear for 3 minutes.

4. Turn fish over and cook on the other side for 3 more minutes.

5. Place on plates and spoon sauce over fish so it falls on plate.

The recipe serves four. Since there was only Shirley and I, we served ourselves very generous portions of this fabulous sauce.

The sauce was delicious with Swordfish but if you prefer, it would go equally well with Halibut or True Cod fillets. We served the fish with roasted red potatoes and broccolini, and of course a glass of Sonoma County Pinot Noir.

I hope you will try this recipe. Let me know what you think. Bon Appétit.