Apart from mackerel, sea bass is undoubtedly my husband’s favourite fish. It’s also a great fish to cook for a romantic Valentine’s (or St Dwynwen’s) meal. This is a restaurant-quality dish that you can easily, simply and quickly prepare at home (which I think is ideal for a Valentine’s meal — cook simply, cook quickly and spend your time with your partner rather than the oven!).
Prep time 15 minutes/Cook time 15 minutes/Serves 2
Ingredients:
2 sea bass fillets, about 140g (5 oz) each
1 small head of broccoli
1 orange
6 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp small capers
6 anchovies, coarsely chopped
1 lemon
Method:
Before you start cooking trim each sea bass fillet so they are both the same shape, then score the skin 5 or 6 times at 1cm (1/2 in) intervals, cutting slightly into the flesh. Set aside. Segment the orange – slice off the top and bottom, then cut away the skin and pith. Cut away each segment, then squeeze out the juice from the remainder of the orange into a bowl. Divide the broccoli into medium-sized florets.
To make the warm broccoli salad, cook the florets in a pan of boiling salted water for 1 minute until just cooked. Whilst the broccoli is cooking, put a frying pan on the hob to heat. As soon as the broccoli is cooked, drain it in a colander, then tip straight into the hot frying pan to ‘scorch’ out all the moisture.
Take off the heat, then scatter the orange segments over the broccoli. Toss for a few minutes just to heat through with the residual heat of the pan, then turn into a bowl and dress with the orange juice and 2 tbsp olive oil. Season with pepper and a small sprinkling of sea salt, then set aside.
Wipe the pan clean. Season the fish with a little salt and pepper just before cooking. Heat the frying pan until very hot, then add 2 tbsp oil. Lay the fish fillets in the pan, skin-side down. As soon as it goes in, press each fillet down with your fingers or a fish slice to stop it from curling up. Reduce the heat to medium, then leave the fish to cook for 3-4 mins, undisturbed, until you can see that the flesh has cooked two-thirds of the way up and the skin is crisp and brown.
Flip the fillets over, then fry on the flesh side for about 2 mins, or until just done, basting the skin with the oil in the pan as it cooks. Leave to rest on a warm plate, skin-side up, and baste with the hot oil and juices from the pan.
Pour 2 tbsp olive oil into the pan and place it back on a high heat. Scatter in the capers and anchovies and cook until they start to crisp. Grate over the lemon zest and squeeze in the juice of ½ the lemon. If there aren’t enough juices in the pan to drizzle over both plates, add a splash more oil. You are now ready to plate up.
Form a bed from the broccoli and orange slices. Sit the fish on top, skin side uppermost, scatter the capers and anchovies around the fish then drizzle over any pan juices. Serve immediately.
