Follow-up re Tom Douglas' Pan-Roasted Blah Blah Blah

So...as I mentioned in my previous post on the dish, the cooking process for my first batch of Pan-Roasted Halibut with Toasted Breadcrumb Salad and Green Lentils was as excessively lengthy as the dish's name itself.

That said, I made the dish again yesterday, using some of the leftovers, and it took like 25 minutes. 

So to review:

FOUR+ HOURS

25 MINUTES

They didn't taste much different, either.

So here's the shortcutting way, I think, to have quicker access to this meal:

• Don't be going through some kind of bizarro Cook It Yourself project where you feel obligated to do everything from scratch and instead just buy some veggie stock and coarse bread crumbs.
• If you do want to make everything from scratch, don't also be going through some kind of freshly-made-everything-is-the-best weird obsession that you caught from all the chefs you're always around WHO HAVE ACCESS TO SOUS CHEFS AND DISHWASHERS.  Keep some stock and breadcrumbs on hand in the freezer or make them on a different day, not as part of the cooking process for this meal.
• Once you make the meal (assuming you like it) freeze up extra lentils for future dishes. 

If the lentils are prepared, and you have breadcrumbs, the rest of the prep is actually super fast. 

• You could probably get away with skipping making the full fresh Lemon Vinaigrette by just pressing a clove of garlic into some lemon juice, shaking up with some olive oil and S&P and using that instead.  (Mince a shallot if you have time, but this is a quicker option.)
• Zap the leftover lentils into the microwave or reheat on stovetop.
• Quickly pan-fry your breadcrumbs, cool them, and then mix with lemon zest, S&P, chopped parsley and most of the lemon juice mixture (save a smidge for topping the fish).
• Throw a piece of halibut into the same pan you just used for the breadcrumbs (don't bother cleaning it), cook it up, put it on top of the reheated lentils, drizzle the rest of the lemon-garlic/shallot on the fish, top with the salad, and you have a fancy-times dinner in a not-so-fancy-times time.