I have been trying to get a nice crust on a piece of fish for years. Every restaurant in the universe seems to manage it no problem, but for some reason I could never pull it off. Finally I discovered the tricks: Teflon, plenty of oil, a very hot pan (#1 and #3 may combine to cause cancer or kill your household pets with lethal fumes - enjoy tasty seared fish at your own risk). In any case, once you get the hang of it, it turns out to be very easy. Salt and pepper the prettier side of the fish. Get your pan really hot, with a few tablespoons of olive oil to coat the surface, then set the fish down on the nice side. If it doesn't sizzle and pop and burn you a little you didn't do it right. Don't touch it for at least a couple of minutes. Once it's cooked a little more than halfway through (you can kind of gauge this by looking at the exposed edge of the piece), turn it over. Nobody wants accidentally raw fish, but it's much better to serve it on the slightly rare side than the overdone and dry side. Take it off the heat and plate. The fish actually takes very little time so you should probably do it last.
First, start the puree. This is easy. Sweat some onions and green onions in a little butter with salt and pepper until softened up a bit. Throw in some green peas. Fresh would be great, but if like me you only had half a bag of freezerburned old frozen ones, that's fine. Add enough water to cover the peas, and give the whole thing a stir. We want to cook the peas, but barely - color is the real key here, and overdone peas turn into army green mush. Once they're done, take them off the heat, cool them down a little, and blend until smooth. Adjust the seasoning and texture as needed by adding a little liquid. Water would be fine, lemon juice or a few drops of vinegar if you want some brightness, salt if it needs more flavor, etc. I actually added some buttermilk because I had some in the fridge and I love the stuff. It added some sourness and some creaminess and a certain little "Hm, what is that?" character to the mix.
Cook the orzo in salted boiling water. Sautee garlic and shallot in a little butter, with salt and pepper to taste. I always burn the garlic but I bet yours will taste better if you don't, so keep an eye on it. Throw in some chopped fresh parsley* if you have it (don't buy a whole bunch just for this though), then add a splash of white wine and a squeeze of lemon juice. Cook that for a minute, then add in the pasta and toss to combine. Put some more parsley if you like it and still have it (especially if you went out and bought parsley just for this).
[*Curly parsley tastes nasty and as far as I can tell only exists as an ugly garnish for boring food at diners and steak houses. I would love to engineer a boycott to destroy the annoying curly parsley industry. In any case: buy flat-leaf parsley!]
Pour the puree out into a shallow bowl or deep plate (or pretentious bowl/plate hybrid you bought because you are the type of weirdo who posts pictures of his dinner on the internet). Spoon a serving of the pasta across the puree, then rest a piece of fish on top of that. I garnished the fish with a little slice of lemon peel, a parsley leaf, and some pink Australian sea salt.
