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Paleo! WTF? Halibut with Pancetta, Basil & Mushroom Butter Sauce

Paleo! WTF? Halibut with Pancetta, Basil & Mushroom Butter Sauce

May 8, 2016
Posted in: Lyme Disease | Reading Time: 3 minutes

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If someone told me I'd eventually go Paleo, I would have died laughing. Being gluten-free was hard enough! But after a month of having a Paleo diet, the pain levels in my body keep dropping week to week. Treating Lyme disease is not just killing pathogens. Lymies have to use every tool in the tool belt. Since I'm hopefully past the killing stage, it's now time to focus on the GI and immune system and the best way to do that is a strict anti-inflammatory diet. Yes, even gluten-free, Celiac-approved grains are nasty to a GI and immune system beaten up by both Lyme & Co., and antibiotics.

The first two weeks going Paleo were not pretty. It's not easy overcoming grain brain. But to answer the burning question everyone has: no, I'm never hungry and never unsatisfied. Because, the nice thing about Paleo is you can pretty much load up on the healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, animal fat (bacon!), nuts, coconut and butter (OK that's not Paleo) or ghee. The other nice thing about Paleo is it's both limited and unlimited. What's for dinner? You're "limited" to whatever veggies you have in the fridge and animal protein, but that  just makes it easier to prepare dinner, usually cooked in one pan. The "unlimited" part comes with the plethora of veggies you start to discover or eat more of because you're not eating grain. (Yes I did make spaghetti squash for my pasta dinner and it rocked.) The grocery cashiers love to pick my brain about what I making with the weird stuff I'm buying. Here is baked halibut, sprinkled with a touch cayenne pepper, topped with a butter, pancetta, basil mushroom sauce. No recipe needed. I just picked out what I had in my fridge and pantry with the fresh fish I just purchased and came out tasting fantastic. The mushrooms were a bit over powering for me, but Mr. Wild Dingo loved them. Served with a huge green salad, with more pancetta on top, 'cuz you can't go wrong with more lardons.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound halibut (cut into 2 eight ounce pieces)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1 cooked piece of bacon, finely minced or 2-3 oz pancetta chopped
  • 1/2 lb sliced mushrooms
  • 3 tablespoons butter (I used salted Kerrygold butter)
  • 2 teaspoons dried parsley
  •  1 teaspoon dried basil
  •  pinch of garlic powder
  • pinch of salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Cook the pancetta or bacon, remove from pan.
  3. Using the bacon grease, add the button mushrooms and some salt and saute the mushrooms. Feel free to add more butter if needed before adding the mushrooms. When fully cooked remove from pan.
  4. Cut the halibut into 2-3 pieces. Place halibut on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice then cover with cayenne pepper and salt and pepper.
  5. Put in oven to bake for 15-20 minutes, unless fish is flaky.
  6. While the fish bakes, melt 3 TBS butter, transfer butter to a heat safe bowl, mix in the parsely, basil, garlic powder and salt. And finally the bacon/pancetta.
  7. Once fish is done, place on a plate, add the mushrooms and top with the mushrooms. Serve with side salad.
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2 comments on “Paleo! WTF? Halibut with Pancetta, Basil & Mushroom Butter Sauce”

  1. hello wild dingo its dennis the vizsla dog hay dada sez he duz not reely like fish but he likes evrything on that resipee so maybe he cud mayk it and he cud eet the stuf off the top and i cud hav the fish wot do yoo think??? sownds fair??? ok bye

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