Filet Frenzy: Halibut & Pork (Plus a Side of Strip)

by Josh Theisinger

Halibut Filet
The variety of fish available to us is often astounding. Some I've never heard of, while others are so classic you just can't pass them up! In this case, Halibut surfaced as an option, so we took the opportunity to share the rare find and showcase it on our menu.

Our chefs start off by pan searing our halibut filet to a perfect golden brown and gingerly placing it over a bed of Israeli cous cous tossed with roasted asparagus. But they're not done there!  They also top it with a mix of capers, kalamata olives and grape tomatoes that are lightly tossed in extra virgin olive oil.

Halibut is a highly coveted fish for its mild, sweet tasting. It is lean with large flakes of white flesh and a firm yet tender texture. It is mostly caught when the fish is in the 25-30 pound range for commercial fishing purposes. But for the extreme adventurers of deep sea fishing, they can grow to over 8 feet long and weigh as much as 600 pounds!  That's a lot of good eating!

While you're not going to get a Fred Flintstone sized portion, we're sure this new delicacy will have you "hooked!"

Bacon Wrapped Pork Filets
Most everyone has heard of filet mignon, if not tried it for themselves. It's French sounding, and it's known as one of the most tender cuts of beef.

But did you know that the true version of filet mignon is not even beef, but rather a pork filet? We can all thank Google for that little tidbit because even I wasn't fully aware of it until just a few moments ago.

Regardless of your definition of filet, we're throwing it back to its original form and serving up applewood smoked bacon wrapped pork filet medallions. But why stop there? We then place these medallions on a housemade Choron sauce.

Don't fret, I cycled back to Google on this one, especially for the spelling. Choron sauce (pronounced SHA-RONE) is a French version of bearnaise or hollandaise sauce with a mix of tomato puree to give it a mild pinkish color. The tomato puree keeps the same smooth texture of the sauce while giving it a slightly sweeter taste.

I'm sure many of you are thinking, "But it's pork, not beef!" Don't get me wrong, just like most other God-fearing Americans, I too find it hard to stray from beef. Rest assured, this isn't just a fancy pork chop in any sense of the word... it's still a tenderloin.

Pork filet is the creme de la creme of pork. It's the sister cut of what you're typically used to. Much like the tenderloin of beef that typical filet mignon comes from, this comes from the cut of meat just off the swine's spine, resulting in the most coveted of cuts.

Sure you can get beef filet mignon any day of the week here, and we guarantee that it's going to be a great cut of beef. But why not venture out and try filet mignon as the French intended?

Dry Aged New York Strip

It's back again!  Making its return to our menu is our dry-aged New York Strip. Over the past six months, we've featured these steaks and they sell faster than we can get them in!

Dry aging is a process requiring a very controlled environment, temperature, humidity and time. The process changes beef by two means. First, moisture is evaporated from the muscle. This creates a greater concentration of beef flavor and taste. Secondly, the beef’s natural enzymes break down the connective tissue in the muscle, which leads to more tender beef.

Our NY strips are aged for 35 days.  After they've been cooked, we've heard these steaks are so tender it's like cutting through a piece of warm butter.  But you'll have to find that out for yourself!

Well there you have it... 3 mouthwatering new entrees just in time to treat yourself for the big Fourth of July weekend!  Get them while they last!