Baked Seabass
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Seabass has a delicate texture and flavor. It's in high demand for restaurants as well as home cooking.
It is rather like a white fleshed salmon.
Any recipe that you find for 'trout' would be ideal or cooking sea bass - and vice versa too!
It's best flavor comes when the fish is at least 1.5 kg (3lbs) and up to 4.5 kg (10lbs) in weight.
You can buy smaller whole fish and they are very tasty, but the fillets are a little thinner and you would need to adust the timings - cook them whole by roasting rather than fillet them as in this recipe.
Simple treatment is best for the smaller fillets - roasted, pan fried, grilled or barbecued to make the skin crispy.
Steaming or baking/roasting is better if it's a whole fish to ensure the fish is cooked right through.
At it's simplest, you can fillet the fish off the bone (or ask your fishmonger to do this for you) and brush with olive oil and a twist of black pepper, then pan fry for five minutes or so, flipping it half way through.
Measure the fillets and use the formula of one inch thickness for 10 minutes total cooking time under the grill or on a barbecue, turning and basting frequently.
You'll know it's done when you press the flesh and it's firm - don't burn your finger though, because it will be hot :-)
Alternatively, cook it whole but gutted, pop some rosemary in the cavity and a few lemon slices, brush with oil and pepper and bake in a hot oven for about 30 minutes, until the flesh is cooked.
Fennel is a classic vegetable to serve with fish, but another good choice is celeriac. It has a delicate celery flavor but is very much denser texture. See the pink Cooks Notes box below for some information about celeriac.
This baked seabass recipe is very simple to prepare.
Get the fishmonger to gut and scale it for you if you don't know how, but watch and learn... that way you'll be able to do it yourself another time if you need to.
This recipe serves two but could easily be increased for more people. Simply double up ingredients, but the cooking time remains the same.
SeaBass with Fennel
2 small sea bass
1 fennel bulb, sliced
1 lemon, sliced
fresh basil leaves
12 black olives - stoned and halved
1 tablespoon olive oil
small glass of wine or cider - use fish stock or water if you don't want alcohol.
Heat the oven to gas mark 6, 200c/180c fan oven, 400f
Rinse and dry the fish and season with pepper.
Stuff the cavity with half the fennel, the lemon slices and basil.
Take a roasting dish and put the rest of the fennel and olives on the bottom. Pour over the wine/cider or stock.
Put the sea bass on top and then drizzle with olive oil.
Bake for about 30 minutes until the fish is cooked through - press with your finger and if it is fairly solid to the touch, then it is cooked.
Serve immediately with some buttered new potatoes and either a salad or vegetables - broccoli, cabbage, beans, carrots - whatever is in season.
Pour the juices from the roasting dish over just before serving.
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Cook's Notes Sea bass is full of protein, low in calories and an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids and minerals. Per 100g raw sea bass Fennel and fish is a classic combination, but celeriac is also good. Celeriac is a root vegetable which is knobbly and looks a bit like a lumpy turnip/swede/rutabaga or whatever you call it in your neck of the woods. A lot of people pass it by and I often find one in the reduced section of the supermarket. It's great as a mashed vegetable, much like you'd do potatoes and it's lovely mixed with potatoes too. I make a soup from it as well as serving it as a vegetable. It has a very delicate celery flavor and blends down beautifully without all the string bits you get from celery. If you wanted to use it instead of fennel in this sea bass recipe, peel it, then slice it thinly and layer it underneath the seambass. The cooking time remains the same. It will soak up the cooking juices perfectly, and be a succulent additional vegetable with your meal. |
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Cook's Notes sea bass |
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Seabass with Fennel
By Liz Alderson
Delicate seabass cooked with fennel and olives.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Yield: 2
Main Ingredient: sea bass, fennel, olives