Baked Arctic Char with Raisin Vinaigrette
and polenta
This raisin vinaigrette adds just the right amount of sweetness and tanginess to our baked fish (sub salmon if you can't find arctic char) and sauteed chard. Enjoy over soft polenta for a balanced meal.
Smarts: If you have a rice cooker, try making polenta in it - no stirring needed.
Ingredients
- Arctic char or salmon - 1 lb ((each serving = 4 oz))
- Homemade raisin vinaigrette - 1/4 cup ((ingredients listed separately))
- Lemon - 1/2 , sliced into wedges
- Chard - 1 bunch, leaves torn, stems chopped
- Garlic - 2 cloves, minced
- Cooking oil - 1 Tbsp
- Raisin vinaigrette - 1/4 cup ((ingredients listed separately))
- Sliced almonds - 2 Tbsp
- Golden raisins - 2 Tbsp
- Polenta - 1/2 cup, uncooked ((sub with grits))
- Water - 2 cups
- Milk - 1 cup
- Butter - 1 Tbsp
- Golden raisins - 2 Tbsp, chopped
- Balsamic vinegar - 2 Tbsp
- Rice vinegar - 1 Tbsp
- Dijon mustard - 1 tsp
- Cooking oil - 5 Tbsp
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Make raisin vinaigrette - Chop raisins and whisk together with balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, Dijon and cooking oil. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Arctic char - Divide into 4 oz. portions. Rinse and pat dry. Pour raisin vinaigrette portion for fish into a baking dish. Place fish presentation side down (non-skin side = presentation side) in the vinaigrette.
- Make polenta - This makes enough for Wednesday’s dinner. Combine water, milk, and butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil (keep an eye on this because milk can easily spill over). Salt and then fold in polenta. Simmer for ~30 minutes, until polenta is cooked through. Alternatively, if you have a rice cooker, you can also combine ingredients in a rice cooker and hit cook (if your rice cooker has settings, cook it on the porridge setting). Save half for Wednesday. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Chard / Garlic - Prep as directed.
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Make
- Heat oven to 400F (204C) degrees.
- Cover baking dish with foil and bake fish for 12 to 15 minutes.
- While fish is baking, heat up a saute pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Add in cooking oil and then chard stems and garlic to heated oil with a sprinkle of salt. Saute until softened, ~4 minutes.
- Next add in leaves - as much as can fit into the pan and saute until wilted. Add more leaves as room is made in the pan. Finish with raisin vinaigrette and garnish with almonds and more raisins.
- Enjoy fish with lemon wedges over chard and polenta (remember to save half the polenta for Wednesday).
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
37 reviews
Complex, delicious combination of flavors. My only complaint is that we didn’t think to double the chard. It was a highlight! I used the instapot for the polenta (1c dry polenta sautéed with 4c water and 1t salt until boiling, then pressure cooked for 9 min, added 3T butter and 4oz Parmesan.) 15 min cooking the Arctic char was perfect for slightly still frozen. I imagine 10 min would be good if fully defrosted.
0 HelpfulArgh. Couldn’t find polenta- used grits. Didn’t realize they’re done in a few minutes and are tough to store. Wish there were instructions. Used salmon... everything tasted bland despite making extra vinegrette.
0 HelpfulThe individual components were all good, but the three together were a very strange pairing. The raisin vinaigrette was delicious and I will keep it in rotation. Polenta could have used more guidance - putting it in my admittedly basic "push down to cook" rice cooker was an exercise in futility - it was just soup, and had to be put on the stove for a while. Even then, it needed time to cool and set which I vaguely recall now, but would have been helpful to see in the instructions.
0 HelpfulWill need to make with the correct fish next time. Ended up substituting Tilapia because that's what we had.
0 Helpful