Battle Sea Bass – Rematch

Sea Bass is truly an awesome fish. It’s such a luxurious tasting animal. After using it in a Baked Sea Bass dish with Tomatoes, Green Olives, Garlic, Lemon and Rosemary over oven roasted portabellos and asparagus, I decided to bring in a little Asian influence with the last couple pieces that I had left from the first battle…

As I eluded to in the last battle, I was thinking of trying a steamed version with a black bean sauce. I ended up doing a garlic black bean sauce with ginger, scallions, garlic and a little bit of sugar. I covered two 6 oz fillets of sea bass with the mixture and placed it in my bamboo steamer. On the top section of my bamboo steamer, I placed Enoki mushrooms, firm tofu and Shanghai bok choy.

After the Sea Bass was perfectly done, I plated it on top of a bed of the Shanghai bok choy, firm tofu and Enoki mushrooms that I had steaming on top of the Sea Bass. To finish it off, I heated up some sesame oil and a few slithers of ginger and lightly drizzled it on top of the fish, and finished it off with some fresh cilantro leaves.

Between the first recipe and this one, I would say that this was by far the best tasting of the two. The saltiness of the black bean mated very well to the sweetness of the Sea Bass. Everything just worked really well together. I was very pleased with this one and I’d gladly make it again. The only thing I would have changed would be to maybe use a little less black bean. I’ve actually forgotten just how salty a little bit of black bean can be so I’ll definitely tone that down a little for next time. Fresh jalapenos might be on the order for the next iteration.

After how well this dish turned out, I’ve definitely to awoken my taste for more Asian flavours. I can’t wait to try out another type of fish.

Dot Com Dinner Chef – Battle Sea Bass

I was down at the local fish monger today and found some fresh Sea Bass. Here’s what I did with it…

I made a Baked Sea Bass with Tomatoes, Green Olives, Garlic, Lemon and Rosemary over oven roasted portabellos and asparagus. This recipe was inspired by one by Emeril Lagasse. His original recipe called for trout fillets, but I decided to substitute in some luxurious 6 oz slabs of Sea Bass instead. Since capers aren’t normally something that I keep in stock, I substituted green olives instead, which give a very similar taste and texture. I also roasted the asparagus with salt and pepper and olive oil instead of blanching them. I added portobello mushrooms as well.

I have to say, this was probably one of my tastier dishes. The flavours worked together well and I do love oven roasted mushrooms and asparagus. I did find the Sea Bass a little too moist for this dish due to the fat content. I can see why trout would have been used, but I’m sure any white fish with a flakier consistency could be used. I’d also like to try the capers to see what kind of flavour it could add to this dish. 

I’ve got a couple more slabs of Sea Bass left and I think I might try it crusted with a balsamic reduction, or for a more Asian flavour, I might just steam it with black bean over tofu and bok choy.