Pan Seared Wild Pacific Halibut & Oven Fried Vidalia Onion Rings

This evening I prepared the beautiful piece of wild Pacific halibut that I picked up at Costco on Saturday. I went there looking for wild Copper River Salmon but sadly, they had not received a shipment of it yet. I'm hoping they will soon! However, I was excited because they had 3 packages with single large halibut fillets. I picked up the largest 2-pound package and cut it into 6 nice sized fillets. I prepared 3 tonight (the third one is for tomorrow's lunch for me). I kept it simple and pan seared it in butter (with a bit of salt and pepper for seasoning) and fresh lemon juice near the end of cooking. You can find the easy recipe for the pan seared halibut here (it only takes about 7 minutes total, depending on thickness) ---> Pan Seared Wild Halibut.

To go along with our halibut, I made French style green beans and my Oven Fried Onion Rings made with sliced Vidalia onions. I doubled my recipe and made 2 large baking sheets of onion rings; one for tonight and I didn't brown the 2nd tray of onion rings as much so I could just pop the tray of them in the oven to heat to go with tomorrow's dinner. I make a seasoned "breading" using almond flour and a few spices and dip them in an egg/cream wash before coating. This evening I used buttermilk (because I had it on hand) in place of the cream or milk and it made a much thicker "egg wash" that clinged a bit better to the onion rings. They are so delicious...even hubby who isn't an onion lover will eat these. Vidalia's are a sweet onion grown in Vidalia, Georgia. It was a delicious meal and I realized how much I've missed FRESH (not frozen) wild fish. My two favorites are Copper River Salmon (King, Sockeye and Coho) and wild Alaskan and Pacific halibut. Even Spike, our Bichon loves it! He kept sneaking tastes from my plate. I've copied and pasted my recipe for the Oven Fried Onion Rings below. Enjoy!

Oven Baked Onion Rings

INGREDIENTS:

1 medium to large sweet onion, sliced into 1/4" rings (I used Vidalia)

1 or 2 eggs

3-4 Tablespoons half-n-half (or cream, buttermilk or almond milk)

1/2 cup (slightly heaped) almond flour

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon paprika (or enough to give color to the almond flour coating)

Salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with foil (I used Reynold's non-stick foil) or you can use parchment paper; brush lightly with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil (no need to use your good Extra Virgin olive oil; I used my light "non-virgin" olive oil for this).  In a small bowl, beat egg and half and half together; season with salt and pepper to taste; add onion rings to the egg mixture, toss and let sit to soak while you make the coating/breading.

In a shallow bowl or plate, mix almond flour, salt and pepper to taste, onion powder, paprika and mix well with a whisk to remove any lumps. 

Take onion rings out, one or two at a time and place in the flour mixture, pressing and turning over with a fork until well coated on both sides.  Place on lightly oiled foil covered baking sheet in a single layer, not touching each other.  Place in oven and bake 7-8 minutes; flip and continue baking another 7-8 minutes or until golden brown and done.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with salt, if desired.