Pan Fried Fillet of Sea Bass with Buttered New Potatoes and Broccoli

Sea bass is a delicious eating fish but it can be fairly expensive. This means that it is doubly important to know how to cook sea bass in order to get the best value from your purchase. This way of cooking fillet of sea bass could not really be much simpler but it really brings out the natural flavours in the fish and is a perfect way of enjoying sea bass to the full.

The potatoes used in this recipe are new season Ayrshire potatoes from the West of Scotland. The potato varieties available will of course vary hugely by geographical location but you are essentially looking for small, new, salad potatoes.

Ingredients per Serving

1 fillet of fresh sea bass (skin on)
5 to 7 small new potatoes
1/2 small head of broccoli
5 or 6 fresh mint leaves
1oz unsalted butter for frying
1/2oz unsalted butter for potatoes
1 tbsp plain (all purpose) flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Wedge of lemon to garnish

Method

The first step is to get your potatoes on to boil. I would normally cook small salad potatoes whole and unpeeled. These particular potatoes were just a little bit on the large side, however, so although I didn't peel them, I did cut them in half. Be sure to add them to cold water and not hot, which should be seasoned lightly with salt. Bring to a boil and simmer for twenty-five to thirty minutes until soft.

It was many years ago that I first heard it said that vegetables which grow below the ground should be started cooking in cold water, while those which grow above the ground should be started in boiling water. I have always found this a good rule to cook by and therefore the broccoli florets are added to a pot before a little salt and boiling water are added to fully cover them. The broccoli is simmered for seven to eight minutes and no longer.

Spoon the flour on to a large dinner plate and season with salt and pepper. Add the ounce of butter to a large, non-stick frying pan and gently melt over a medium heat. Pat the skin side only of the bass fillet in the seasoned flour. Shake off the excess flour and place it skin side down in the frying pan.

A fillet of sea bass such as this will not take long to cook. After a couple of minutes, you should be able to see that it is cooked almost all the way through. Turn the heat down to low and carefully turn the fish to cook for a final minute on the flesh side.

While the sea bass is cooking, the potatoes and broccoli should be drained through colanders. Return the potatoes to the empty pot, add the half ounce of butter and the roughly chopped mint leaves. Gently swirl to ensure even coating.

Plate the sea bass with a fish slice, skin side uppermost. Add the broccoli and potatoes to the plate. Garnish the sea bass fillet with a wedge of lemon and serve immediately.

NB - You will see from the image below that the skin, which should have crisped up nicely during frying, will easily peel away from the fillet with the gentle assistance of a dinner knife. This could even be done prior to service if desired.

Sustainable Sea Bass a la Meuniere with Crispy Potato Discs

Very briefly, before I proceed with today's recipe, I would firstly like to acknowledge the fact that this particular post is a bit of a special landmark...

Happy Birthday, "What Should I Have for Dinner Tonight!" It was on March 20th, 2009, that I created and first posted to this blog. The idea came about when I was pondering the question myself one night and I had little idea how it would develop...

Two years and more than two hundred posts down the line, I have loved every minute of working on this blog. I can scarcely believe myself the number of new friends it has directly helped me make around the world and how it has actually served as a learning process for me in so many ways. I very much look forward to many more years and posts to come in this wonderful, combination world of blogging and food.

I wanted to come up with something today that was a little bit special, appealing to a wide range of people, representative of one of my own favourite dishes and yet fairly simple to prepare. I gave it a little thought and decided to do this very different combination of fish and potatoes, so popular in the form of fish and chips. I also wanted to ensure that I took account of fish sustainability in the dish and decided to use fresh, sustainable sea bass fillets. I am using silver, European bass fillets but a sustainable equivalent will be available in most countries around the world.

Cooking fish a la Meuniere requires firstly that it be coated in flour and secondly that it be served with a sauce comprising browned butter, lemon juice and parsley. So many recipes of this type are overly complicated beyond belief and - in my eyes, at least - spoiled. I have therefore stuck to the literal principles while making the dish as simple as possible, to ensure it retains the delicious, natural flavours of the sea bass.

Ingredients per Person

2 small sea bass fillets
2 tbsp flour
Salt and black pepper
1 large potato
2 to 3oz of butter
1 tbsp freshly chopped parsley
Juice of half a lemon
Accompanying vegetable of choice

Method

The potato discs should be started first. The potato should be peeled and sliced to a thickness of 1/4". The slices should be placed in a wire basket in a pot of cold water and on to the heat. When the water begins to boil, the heat should be reduced and the potatoes simmered for five minutes. They should be drained, cooled and refrigerated in a Tupperware dish for half an hour. After this time, they should be carefully dried in a clean tea towel and deep fried in sunflower oil for five minutes. Drain them on kitchen paper, cool and again refrigerate for half an hour.

One ounce of the butter should be melted in a large, non-stick frying pan. Please note that it is imperative that real butter be used here. Low fat, vegetable based substitutes are - however sadly - by no means suitable and will entirely spoil the finished dish.

The flour should be spread on a plate and seasoned. The bass fillets should be patted on the skin side only in the flour and laid in the frying pan, skin side down. The butter should be spooned occasionally over the flesh side and the fillets cooked for four to five minutes until done.

While the fillets are cooking, the potato slices should be fried again in the sunflower oil until crisp and golden. Any accompanying vegetable of choice will also require to be prepared.

The fillets of fish should be transferred to a heated plate and covered with tinfoil to stay warm. The remainder of the butter should be added to the pan and cooked on a fairly high heat. The lemon juice and parsley should be added for but a minute or two.

Drain the potatoes on fresh kitchen towel and plate with the vegetable. Drizzle the sauce over the fish and garnish the dish with more fresh parsley and a lemon segment if required.