Poached Halibut Cheeks with Julia Child’s Beurre Blanc and Ikura

Poached Halibut Cheeks
Julia Child’s Beurre Blanc
Ikura & Chives
And
Julia Child Floribunda Roses

Celebrating Julia Child’s birthday has become a cherished tradition here on Taste With The Eyes. Each August, I return to her recipes, her stories, and her extraordinary influence on American cooking—and this year is no exception.

For Julia’s birthday, I’m serving tender poached halibut cheeks with her classic beurre blanc, finished with jewel-like salmon roe and fresh chives. Simple, elegant, and very much in the spirit of Julia: start with wonderful ingredients and treat them well.

ANNUAL JULIA CHILD BIRTHDAY TRIBUTES

2025

Julia Child’s Escargots à la Bourguignonne at a Parisian Bistrot (here)

2024

A Ladies Birthday Luncheon in Paris and Julia’s Coquilles St. Jacques Recipe (here)

2023

Chicken Liver Pâté at a Birthday Luncheon with Jacques Pépin (here)

2022

Julia and Jacques Prepare Gravlax Together (here)

2021

Julia’s Cambridge Kitchen and Recipe for Vichyssoise (here)

2020

Julia’s Upside-Down Martini (here)

Julia’s First Meal in France and Her Famous Recipe for Sole Meunière (here)

Figs and Sabayon à la Julia Child (here)

Poached Halibut Cheeks
With Julia Child’s Beurre Blanc
Recipe

Julia Child’s Beurre Blanc — Half Recipe, Simplified

Makes about ½ cup

Ingredients

• 4 t. white wine vinegar
• 4 t. dry white wine or dry vermouth
• 1½ t. very finely minced shallot
• ¼ t. fine sea salt
• Small pinch white pepper
• 1 T. unsalted butter
• 1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 8 pieces
• Lemon juice, if needed

Easy Method

1. Put the vinegar, wine, shallot, salt, white pepper, and 1 T. butter in a small saucepan.
2. Boil over medium-high heat until the liquid has reduced to about 2 teaspoons and looks slightly syrupy. Don’t worry about measuring it exactly—you want just a small amount of concentrated liquid remaining around the shallots.
3. Take the pan off the heat. Whisk in 2 pieces of the cold butter.
4. Put the pan over very low heat. Continue whisking in the remaining cold butter one piece at a time, adding the next piece when the previous one is almost incorporated.
5. As soon as all the butter is incorporated and the sauce is thick and creamy, remove it from the heat.
6. Taste. Add a little more fine sea salt, white pepper, or a few drops of lemon juice only if it needs it.

Poached Halibut Cheeks with Julia Child’s Beurre Blanc, Ikura & Chives

Ingredients

Halibut Cheeks

• 8 to 10 oz. halibut cheeks
• Fine sea salt
• 2/3 c. dry white wine
• 2/3 c. water
• 1 small shallot, thinly sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• A few parsley stems

To Finish

• 3 T. ikura (salmon roe)
• Fresh chives, finely snipped

Method

1. Pat the halibut cheeks dry and season lightly with fine sea salt. Let stand for about 10 minutes.
2. In a small pot that will hold the cheeks fairly snugly, combine the wine, water, shallot, bay leaf, and parsley stems. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Reduce the heat so the liquid is barely moving. Add the halibut cheeks in a single layer and cover.
4. Poach very gently for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on their thickness. Begin checking at 3 minutes. The cheeks should be opaque and just cooked through but still moist and tender.
5. Carefully lift the cheeks from the poaching liquid and briefly set them on a clean kitchen towel to remove excess moisture.
6. Spoon warm Julia Child beurre blanc into the center of a white shallow bowl with a wide rim.
7. Arrange the halibut cheeks naturally over the sauce. Let them sit for about 30 seconds, then spoon the ikura partly over and around the cheeks.
8. Finish with finely snipped chives and serve immediately.

Note

This dish is intentionally kept simple to let the special ingredients shine. Delicate halibut cheeks are gently poached and paired with Julia Child’s buttery beurre blanc, while ikura adds a briny pop and finely snipped chives provide a fresh finish. Nothing more is needed—the beauty is in the ingredients themselves.

Julia Child Floribunda Rose
The Color of Butter

There is even a rose named for Julia Child, and for several years I grew the Julia Child Floribunda in my garden in Los Angeles.

Bred by Tom Carruth and introduced by Weeks Roses in 2006, it was an All-America Rose Selections winner that same year. Julia herself selected this rose to bear her name, drawn to its butter-gold color and distinctive licorice fragrance.

I always thought of these roses as the color of butter. But not all butter is the same shade of yellow, and neither were the roses in my garden. Some blossoms were a deep golden yellow, others a softer buttery yellow, and as they aged, some became pale and creamy, almost ivory.

Often several of those shades appeared together on the same plant, as you can see in my photographs.

It seems especially fitting to include my Julia Child roses in a post celebrating her birthday. Their many shades of butter make a lovely companion to poached halibut cheeks with Julia’s beurre blanc—a sauce whose very essence is, after all, butter.

Bon appétit — and joyeux anniversaire, Julia!

🌼 In Memoriam 🌼

JULIA CHILD
August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004