Seared Yellowtail with Chilled Okinawan Sweet Potatoes and Dried Asian Pear Salad [GF]

As of this weekend, I'm officially back on O'ahu.  Now, there's nothing that says homecoming like fresh fish, and since Times Supermarket had fresh-caught hammachi (otherwise known as yellowtail) on sale for a ridiculously low price, I saw no reason not to indulge.  This explains the impetus behind one of the items in the holy trinity of you see plated in the picture above, and the other two were no less serendipitous — but wow... the whole is certainly more than the sum of those three parts, and each part is individually fantastic.

The salad, you see, would not have been what it was without the dried Asian pears, which were made possible by the recent arrival of my housemate's food dehydrator, which I employed in a trial run earlier this week.  The dessication victims included an apple banana, an Asian pear, and several kiwis, all of which turned out quite palatable dried.  The Okinawan sweet potato was donated to the household by a departing guest, and while I'd expected to be reheating it this evening, after baking it last night, I decided, upon tasting a piece of it cold, that it had to be served that way.  And thus dinner was born.  When following the recipe below, note that the official SI unit of Asian pear quantity cited therein, otherwise known as the "piece," consists of half of a thin, cross-sectional slice. 

Yellowtail

• ¼ lb. yellowtail fillet, cut into ½-cm. thick slices
• 1/8 tsp. sea salt
• 1/8 tap. freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large pinch dry dill weed
• ¼ tsp. sesame oil

Sweet potatoes

• 1 medium Okinawan sweet potato

Salad

• 1 large handful shredded nori
• ½ stalk celery, thinly sliced
• ½ tsp. gluten-free tamari soy sauce
• ½ tsp. rice vinegar
• black pepper and salt to taste
• ¼ tsp. fresh ginger root, minced
• 3 pieces dried Asian pear, sliced into thin strips

Preheat an oven to 400° Fahrenheit.  Pierce the Okinawan sweet potato several times with a fork, wrap it in aluminum foil, and bake it at that temperature for roughly an hour, or until tender.  Place in the refrigerator for several hours to cool.  Note that in the plating above, I only used half of the sweet potato (and you better believe I'm looking forward to consuming the other half tomorrow).

To prepare the fish, rub the slat and pepper over the slices until they're evenly coated.  Spread the sesame oil out thinly on a frying pan and heat it for 5-10 minutes on medium heat before placing the yellowtail slices on it.  Once the fish is in the pan, immediately sprinkle the dill over it and flip it (it should cook for no more than a minute on each side), then remove from the pan. 

To prepare the salad, simply combine the ingredients in a bowl and toss lightly with a fork.  Serve all three dishes together immediately after preparation, since the temperature of each one is crucial to the diner's enjoyment.  I recommend accompanying the dish with a good nigori sake, served chilled.  This particular type of sake has a subtle aftertaste redolent of bananas, and will complement the meal perfectly.