Laura Calder has single-handedly revolutionalized the way we view French food. With her simple recipes and accessible ingredients, the host of French Food at Home has made steak au poivre a practical option for every dinner table. Now, Laura Calder has put together a full menu exclusively for her readers. Taken from her most recent bestseller French Taste, each carefully-picked course perfectly complements the next, in this menu designed to welcome the warm weather. Below is the recipe for Laura’s entree choice, Lettuce-Wrapper Halbut with Dill Cream Sauce. Don’t forget to check out our MSN Book Guide for the appetizer, Pernod Mussels on the Half Shell, and French Taste for the Radishes and Peas side dish and a delectable Savarin with Strawberries. Bon appétit!
Lettuce-Wrapped Halibut with Dill Cream Sauce
One spring, I became fixated on perfecting a recipe for lettuce-wrapped fish. Don’t ask me why, but that sort of drive overtakes me sometimes: I make something, and it’s a complete disaster, but I know it has potential, so then I make it again (and again and again) until the recipe finally reveals to me its inner splendor. That was the case with the lettuce-wrapped fish. The reason for lettuce instead of chard leaves or spinach (which you could also use) is that lettuce has that wonderfully promising color of early spring buds, and it wraps itself lightly around the fish like a pretty silk shawl rather than like a wool blanket. Meanwhile, the sauce (which I found in an excellent book by Anthony Worrall-Thompson, called The Elegant Chef ’s Guide to Hors d’Oeuvres and Appetizers) is as simple as boiling water but tastes as sophisticated as something straight out of a Swiss finishing school. Please, please, please serve it with Radishes and Peas (p. 210) on the side. It’s so beautiful that way, and the dishes belong together like violets and dew.

