This Garlic Peppercorn Crusted Mahi Mahi recipe is the perfect option for a weeknight meal with your family! This pan seared mahi mahi recipe is packed full of flavor and will show you exactly how to cook mahi mahi!
This Garlic Peppercorn Crusted Mahi Mahi recipe is serve with a sherry blue cheese cream sauce give it a restaurant quality flavor.
Garlic Peppercorn Crusted Mahi Mahi with a sherry blue cheese cream sauce? Yep- that is a mouth full! I recently had the pleasure of tasting the new Roy’s Restaurant Pacific Rim menu!
It was delightfully tasty with unique and innovative flavor combinations. I recognize that not everyone has a Roy’s near them, so I’m bringing you an adaptation of one of their recipes, Garlic Peppercorn Crusted Mahi Mahi!
Upon leaving I was given a copy of Roy’s Fish & Seafood: Recipes from the Pacific Rim. I figured if you can’t make it to a Roy’s Restaurant, you could recreate a similar recipe at home!
What is mahi mahi?
Mahi mahi, also known as the dorado or dolphin fish, is a fish that is typically found in tropical climates and is a surface-dwelling fish. Mahi mahi is a great fish for the home chef!
Inexpensive in comparison to many other cuts of fish, a slightly sweet flavor and easily accessible both fresh and frozen, mahi mahi is a great choice for a family meal or dinner party. If you do not care for mahi mahi or can not locate it, this recipe also works well with grouper, sea bass, swordfish or halibut.
Sherry blue cheese cream sauce has an addictive flavor that compliments fish without overpowering the flavor, but would also be fabulous topping chicken, pork or steak. This recipe makes extra, so I froze it for another meal.
Ever wonder why restaurant meals have such fabulous flavor that can be difficult to achieve at home?
Generally it is due to exotic and high quality ingredients that can sometimes be challenging to find or too expensive to purchase for one meal or things such as homemade demi-glace that can take hours to prepare.
Such is the case with this sauce, it calls for sherry vinegar. While I highly suggest it for salad dressings and other recipes, it is pricey at $15 a bottle. Substitutions include cheaper rice wine vinegar or red wine vinegar with a sprinkle of sugar.
Another item used for the in-restaurant version of this recipe is a demi-glace. Typically made at home, this takes hours to reach maximum flavor potential.
Some specialty grocers will carry a packaged version, but it can break the bank and commonly lacks the flavor of home prepared.
I didn’t have time to make my own, so I opted for the next best option, Better Than Bullion, a thick, pasty concentrated base. I keep vegetable around because I can use it for any recipe with meats, fish or veggies.
This recipe also calls for rare Hawaiian red salt… oh, you don’t keep your pantry stocked at all times? No worries, use a coarse sea salt instead. I actually happened to have some from a salt variety pack given to me by a friend. I’d also make the suggestion of topping with jumbo lump crab meat.
If you enjoyed this mahi mahi recipe, check out these easy seafood recipes:
Garlic Peppercorn Crusted Mahi Mahi
Equipment
- Heat Resistant Rubber Spatula
Ingredients
Sherry Blue Cheese Cream Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons shallot , minced
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 2 tablespoons sherry
- 1 tablespoon basil , minced
- 1/4 cup vegetable broth
- 4 ounces blue cheese , crumbled
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- Fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper , to taste
Mahi mahi:
- 4 mahi mahi fillets
- 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Hawaiian Red Salt or Coarse Sea Salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Heat oil in small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and garlic, saute until soft. Add sherry, basil and vegetable broth, stirring constantly. Bring to a low simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add blue cheese crumbles and heavy cream. Stir until sauce thickens. Season with fine sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. Set aside, keeping warm.
- Crust top side of mahi mahi fillets with ground black pepper, packing tightly.
- Heat a large skillet with olive oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add fillets, crusted side down. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Carefully turn with spatula. Continue to cook on the other side for 3-4 minutes, or until fish is fully cooked, opaque white and flaky.
- Plate fish, top with sherry blue cheese sauce and finish with Hawaiian Red Salt or other coarse sea salt.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was!
Nutrition
Can’t find one near you? Founder and namesake Roy Yamaguchi has published a cookbook, Roy’s Fish & Seafood: Recipes from the Pacific Rim, available for purchase through Amazon.
I love that sauce! Thanks for sharing the substitutions. I can never recreate restaurant sauces 100%!
I think this looks really good. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
This sounds delicious. I have always loved mahi mahi.
This is so yummy looking. I love new sauces and I will have to do this.
I’ve never heard of Roys. But gosh that recipe is all my favorite flavors rolled together. YUM!
This sounds so good! Can’t wait to try it! Pinned for later!
My kids are HUGE seafood fans. I just know they’d gobble this up like crazy!
This looks amazing!!! I’d love this.
This looks soo good. I’ve been trying to incorporate more fish into diet so I’ll have to try this recipe.
You had me at peppercorn, and then again at cream. This looks and sounds delicious!
This looks like a great recipe! We ate at Roy’s when we were in Oahu a few years ago. The food was out of this world!
YUM!
This recipes sounds so delicious! I love finding new ways to prepare fish that we catch, but unfortunately, we never catch dolphin (mahi mahi). I bet this would also taste delicious on snapper, which we catch plenty of!
This would make me feel so fancy to serve at home! I love eating fish because it’s so lean.
I’m really not a fan of fish but as I am trying to eat healthier I’ve told myself that I need to incorporate more fish into my diet.
This looks really delicious! We’ve been experimenting with different types of fish so we’ll have to try this!
April- it is a great quick fish meal. I typically go basic with lemon and pepper, so this was a pretty fancy step up!
Amazing. I don’t like seafood or blue cheese, but you make it look delicious!
LOL- Robin, you crack me up. The only Massachusetts-er (I made that up, I think) that doesn’t care for seafood! Hubby was up at Fenway just yesterday for work!
Ooh! I love Roy’s. There is one here in Vegas. I would love to make one of their recipes.
You should totally get the cookbook- I’ve made three recipes out of it so far and while the plates at the actual restaurant are impossible to create, it is the next best thing!
This looks delicious! I pinned your recipe to my Seafood board – hubby said he definitely wants to give the recipe a try.
Thanks, Debbie!
Oh I love mahi mahi. I’m deathly allergic to bleu cheese though it sounds yummy either way!
Nicole, can you use a different type of cheese? Maybe Gorgonzola or Parmesan?