by: Helen Porter
Fish is, as they say, good for you. It contains a wealth of 'good' fats and protein, not to mention vitamins. Most people, however, seem a little restricted in their choice of fish, sticking with trout and salmon mostly. So why not experiment a little with some of the other wonderful fish out there? like sea-bass, or example! Sea-bass is a light white fish with a very mild flavor, and this easy-to-make dish is perfect for a dinner party since the vegetables can be pre-prepared and then heated at the last moment. The ingredients you need are:-
- 2 Fillet Sea-bass
- 2 Peppers - Yellow & Red work for colour
- Spring Onions x 4 cut into 2 pieces
- Asparagus x8 tips
- 1 Large Courgette
- Olive Oil
- Balsamic Oil
- Garlive clove - crushed
- Butter 75g
- Whole Lemon cut into quarters
- Salt & Pepper
First you need to prepare your Pepper Butter with which you will fry the fish later.
Char-grill one half of a pepper (rub in a little oil oil). Once soft and cooked leave to cool. Mix in with the lightly salted butter, grind in a little pepper and squeeze one quarter of the lemon over it. Put the mixture into a large piece of clingfilm in the middle in a long sausauge shape. Roll the cling-film so you have the butter in the middle in a sausage shape but covered over (this is a style preferred by www.HelensRecipes.com staff, by the way!). Put in the freezer - this will give you nice 'circle' shapes for cooking and presentation
Now slice the peppers into 4 pieces and the half pepper into 2 pieces. Cut your large courgette in half and then chop each half into 4 slices length ways so you get long slices rather than little round chunks. Rub all over with a little olive oil and chargrill. These should take around 25 minutes - take off the heat once cooked.
Meanwhile take an oven dish, add the asparagus and spring onions. Cover with 6 tablespoons of oil, a few dashes of balsamic oil and the crushed garlic clove (add 3 if you really like garlic!) This will need to cook in the oven at 170 degrees for approx. 15-18mins until tender.
The sea-bass will take around 8-12 minutes to cook so halfway through cooking the above put the fish into a hot pan then turn down the heat to medium. Take the butter from the freezer and put two 1 cm circles on each fillet.
Build the dish!
Put 4 asparagus tips on the bottom with a drizzle of the olive, balsamic and garlic oils. Now build up the layers of vegetables as follows:-
spring onions
red peppers
courgettes
On top of this veggie stack, place the seabass and add 1cm of the butter for presentation. The fish should still be warm and the butter should be melting
This dish can be served with any of the following:
Basil mash potato - see Helens Recipe for rustic mash and simply add butter and chopped basil with a little cream.
Pak/Bok Choy with soy sauce works well. Serve with a chilled white wine - a Sancerre works well with this!
