Chilean Sea Bass with Pan seared honeydew, duck prosciutto, and midori sauce

beet and horseradish hummus

Prosciutto e Melone is a classic Italian appetizer. Sweet ripe melon draped with paper thin slices of salty cured ham. The flavors just dance on the tongue and awaken your palate for whatever dish is coming next.

Fabulous!

That is…unless you don’t eat ham.

But…and it’s a very big and wonderful but…it’s easy to achieve the same effect by salt curing duck breast.

That’s right, Kosher Prosciutto e Melone. It’s available from Aaron’s Kosher Organic Gourmet online and from D’Artagnan, The duck people, in non-kosher form.

Or…with a little planning ahead, you can make it yourself!

There’s no reason for me to reinvent the wheel. This recipe for Duck Prosciutto from Chef David Leite is perfect.

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I paired rich, buttery, tender Chilean Sea Bass with pan seared slices of sweet, juicy honeydew seasoned with ginger and lime, and crowned them with succulent, salty, and chewy duck prosciutto.

And now it needed a sauce to tie it all together. The perfect sauce would be one that accentuates the flavors that are already present without overpowering them. It evolved as a stream of consciousness. I thought, what goes with honeydew? Of course! Midori, the bright green melon flavored liqueur from Japan! It will look gorgeous against the stark white fish. And, since it’s Japanese—midori means green in Japanese—it seemed to call for seasoning the sauce with the Japanese flavors of ginger, mirin, and rice vinegar, flavors that would complement the duck, the melon, and the fish. I considered adding soy sauce, but that would ruin the color of the dish, so I stuck with kosher salt.

The little ramekin of beet and horseradish hummus makes a nice counterpoint. I like to serve it with a slice or two of fried lotus root. It’s so lacy and pretty, and it also tastes very good. Whole Foods usually has them, and they’re also available in Asian groceries. If you can’t find it, you can serve the hummus with small triangles of pita, soft or toasted, instead.

This plate makes an amazing presentation and it will take your gustatory experience to fabulous in one ecstatic mouthful.

And it’s surprisingly simple to make it.

Serve small portions as a first course, or larger portions for an entrée.

Ingredients:

For the Fish:

• Chilean Sea Bass Portions, as many as you need for the number of people you’re serving—3 ounces per person as a first course, or 6 ounces each as a main course. Try to keep them all the same thickness, so that they cook evenly.

• kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

• 2 large cloves garlic, peeled and smashed with the heel of your hand or the flat side of a chef’s knife

• avocado oil, or other high smoke-point fruit or nut oil, as needed

• butter, or plant butter, as needed

• thin, crescent moon slices of ripe honeydew, shell and seeds removed

• fresh lime

• duck prosciutto, 1—2 slices per portion

For the Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons butter or plant butter, such as Earth Balance

• 1 large clove garlic, minced

• 2 tablespoons flour

• ½ cup Midori liqueur

• 1 cup stock—fish or lightly colored chicken

• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice

• 1 tablespoon mirin

• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

• kosher salt and pepper as needed

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro (use parsley if you don’t like cilantro)

For the Hummus:

Ingredients:

• 2-3 medium beets, about 6-8 ounces

• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (you can rub them with your fingers to remove the tough outer skins for a super smooth hummus if you like, but it’s not absolutely necessary)

• ¼ cup tahini paste

• 1-2 cloves garlic (to taste), roughly chopped

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

• freshly squeezed lime juice. Start with 2 tablespoons, add more to taste.

• 1 tablespoon jarred prepared horseradish, or more if you want it spicier

• black sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Make the Hummus:

• Roast the beets: wrap each beet in aluminum foil and place in a 400º oven. Bake them for about an hour. A fork pierced through the foil should slip in easily with no resistance. If your beets are large or a bit older, they may take longer to roast. Just use the fork test. When the beets are tender, remove the foil and allow them to sit until they’re just cool enough to handle.

• Cover a beet with paper towel and, holding it in your hand, rub with the towel. The skin should slough right off. Alternatively, you can use pre-roasted beets. The results will be almost as good. Avoid using canned beets.

• Cut up the beets and toss them into the workbowl of a food processor with the rest of the ingredients. Process until very smooth.

• Taste the hummus and adjust salt, lime, garlic, and horseradish to your taste.

• Tahini varies in thickness according to the brand. If your hummus is too thick, add ice cold water a little at a time, by the tablespoon, until the texture is to your liking.

• Divide the hummus into individual ramekins and set aside. You can garnish them with a light sprinkling of black sesame seeds if you like.

• Slice the lotus root thinly, about ¼ inch wide. If you want the slices to perch on the side of the ramekins, make one cut from edge to center.

• Pour a little oil into a heated skillet and when the oil shimmers, add the lotus root slices. Fry them on each side, until they just begin to take on color. It won’t take long. Then remove them from the oil and set them aside on paper towels.

Make the Sauce:

• Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the garlic. Cook, stirring, until the garlic softens, but don’t let it brown. This will take about 30 seconds.

• Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly to cook the flour.

• Pour in the Midori and the stock and bring the sauce to a simmer, stirring constantly to prevent lumps. The sauce will thicken as it cooks. This will not take long.

• Add the rest of the ingredients, tasting for salt and pepper, and cook for another 30 seconds or so, stirring to incorporate. Set the sauce aside while you prepare the fish.

Make the Fish:

• Cut the honeydew melon in half, from root to stem, and scoop out the seeds. Cut each half into crescent shaped wedges, about ½ inch thick. Carefully cut the fruit away from the rind, sliding a knife along the bottom. If you have a curved knife, such as a grapefruit knife, it will be perfect, but any knife that feels comfortable in your hand will do.

• Get a skillet good and hot. Add a knob of butter and a dash of oil (the oil will keep the butter from burning), and as soon as it until it sizzles, add the honeydew slices. Sear the melon slices for 30 seconds. Then carefully turn them with a flat spatula and sear them on the other side for another 30 seconds. Remove them from the pan and reserve them for later.

• Cut the prosciutto into ½ inch wide ribbons, crosswise. (If you cut them lengthwise, some will be all fat and others will have no fat.) Set the prosciutto aside.

• Season both sides of the fish portions with salt and pepper.

• In the same skillet you used for the melon, heat another glug of oil with another knob of butter. Toss in those smashed garlic cloves. They’ll flavor the oil while the fish cooks. When the pan sizzles, add the fish, skin side down.

• Cook the filets over medium/high heat, leaving them undisturbed for 3-4 minutes so that the skin can develop a nice crispy crust. Gently lift one of the fish portions to check the bottom. If it’s not crispy yet, let them cook for another minute. When the skin is crisp and golden, turn them over. Lower the heat to medium and continue to cook until the tops are golden and the fish is cooked through—it should be fork tender all the way through. The internal temperature should be between 140º and 145º.

Putting it all together.

We’re going to double sauce. Meaning, a drizzle of sauce on the plate, which will not only look fancy-schmancy, but will also provide extra sauce for dipping. And of course, we’ll do a nice drizzle of sauce over the fish.

• Return the pot with the sauce to the stovetop and cook it until it’s re-heated.

• Place a fish portion, skin side down, on a plate and spoon a little sauce around it in a sort of freeform fashion. You don’t want the fish to be actually sitting in the sauce, as that would take away from the crispness of the skin. Arrange a slice or two of the melon on the fish, top with the slivered prosciutto, and finish the dish with a drizzle of sauce over all.

• A little ramekin of beet and horseradish hummus on the plate provides a perfect counterpoint. I add a thin slice or two of lotus root—because they’re gorgeous and because they taste good.

Did you make it? Was it fabulous?