Fish for Friday here with a lovely dish this week of Roasted Sea Bass with a Lemon Parmesan Cream. Sea Bass is a fish that people really enjoy eating these days.
Its a common name which is used to describe a variety of fish, but here in the UK, all sea bass that is sold is exclusively European Bass.
I sourced mine from Seafresh, the online fish monger. Their seas bass is farmed, which is the most sustainably sourced at the moment! I can attest that it is a beautiful piece of fish.
Not as thick as cod, or as flat as plaice it is white or light in colour and beautifully sweet and buttery in flavour, mild and delicious!
The sea bass from Seafresh comes in skin on fillets, each piece being frozen individually, making it easy to take out only as many fillets as you want to use at any given time.
Its very easy to thaw out overnight in the refrigerator, or for a few hours at room temperature.This is one of the things I really like about the way they pack their fish.
I roasted mine today in a hot oven. Prior to roasting I sprinkled it with a spicy rub mix, of herbs and spices . . . and dotted it with butter . . .
A beautiful piece of fish doesn't take much work when it comes right down to it. A good piece of fish speaks for itself.
This recipe cooks very quickly, only taking about 8 minutes in a hot oven. I had a sauce which I wanted to serve with it.
Because the fish cooks so quickly I made the delicious sauce that I wanted to serve with it first and kept it warm while the fish roasted. I also cooked the spinach that I wanted to serve with it.
That's one thing I really love about fish . . . the easy of cooking it and the fact that it cooks very quickly. Its an almost instant dinner!
Plus it is so healthy and such a great source of protein. I am always saying to Todd we don't eat fish nearly often enough. My mother always told us it was brain food.
I made a Lemon Parmesan Cream Sauce to serve with our fish today. It is lush and rich and goes beautifully with the flavour of the fish and that spicy rub.
Simple things like that can dress up even the simplest meals and without a lot of effort taken.
It is a basic cream sauce/or bechamel . . . flavoured with Parmesan cheese, white wine and garlic.
Bechamel is the most basic of sauces. It was one of the first things they taught us how to do and forms the basis for all sorts of other recipes. Its also very simple to make so long as you follow a few rules.
First rule being you must use equal parts of flour and butter to make a roux. There is no such thing as a low fat bechamel. You must also cook the roux for a few minutes to cook out the flour flavour. This is a must.
You also want to make sure you have the correct amount of liquid to bind to the roux. Too little and you will end up with library paste. Too much and you have soup. Quantities matter. A lot.
Finally a proper bechamel needs to be cooked long and slow. If you try to rush it by using too high a temperature beneath your saucepan, you run the risk of burning it and there is no coming back from that. Also whisk, whisk, whisk. You don't want it to be lumpy.
A bechamel at its very basic is simple to make and makes for a most luxurious finish for any dish. With its mix of white wine, stock, cream and Parmesan this sauce was exquisite with the fish.
I sauteed some spinach to serve along side. I love sauteed fresh
spinach. It cooks in a flash, which makes it perfect for serving with
fish.And its bright green colour set off the fish and the sauce beautifully.
You can cook the spinach while you are roasting the fish. It doesn't
actually take very long to cook the spinach at all. Its basically just
wilted. I just add it to a hot skillet, a handful at a time. Tossing it with tongs, it wilts perfectly in just a few minutes and retains its colour beautifully.
You can trim off any largish stems prior to cooking if you wish. They don't really bother me, but I know when I worked at the Manor, I had to make sure there were no stems on the spinach at all.
It would take me a good 10 or 15 minutes going through the spinach removing all the stems. I am not that pedantic at home.
That beautiful rich sauce goes very well with both the fish and the spinach. I did garnish it with a few micro-greens for colour, but you could also use parsley or even snipped chives.
The only other thing you will need is some potatoes, rice or pasta on the side. I steamed some baby new potatoes in the microwave.
Just wash them, cut them in half if larger, and put them into a microwavable bowl with a cover, along with a knob of butter and some seasoning.
Cover and then cook on high for 9 to 11 minutes until fork tender. Let sit for 3 to 5 minutes before serving. Perfect!
Yield: 2
Roasted Sea Bass with a Lemon Parmesan Cream
Deliciously spiced and perfectly baked sea bass served with a lush flavourful cream. Simply wonderful. You can easily double the quantities to serve more people if you wish. This would make a great dinner party first course.
ingredients:
For the fish:
- 2 sea bass fillets
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1/4 tsp each dried basil, dried oregano,
- 1/4 tsp each salt and black pepper
- 1/8 tsp garlic powder
- pinch cayenne pepper
- soft butter to dot
For the sauce:
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 TBS flour
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 30ml white wine (1 fluid ounce)
- 60ml chicken stock (1/4 cup)
- 120ml heavy cream (1/2 cup)
- 2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese
- the juice and zest of 1/2 unwaxed lemon
- salt and white pepper to taste
For the spinach:
- 1 bag washed baby leaf spinach (about 5 large handfuls)
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 small clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
- salt and black pepper to taste
instructions:
How to cook Roasted Sea Bass with a Lemon Parmesan Cream
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a baking sheet. Place the fish fillets skin side down on the buttered baking sheet. Combine all of the herbs and spices, rubbing them together well. Sprinkle evenly over the fish. Dot with butter and set aside while you make the sauce.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Whisk in the flour. Cook, whisking for about a minute to cook out the flour taste. Stir in the garlic powder, and then whisk in the chicken stock and white wine. Cook, whisking until the mixture comes to a boil and bubbles. Whisk in the cream and heat through gently. Whisk in the cheese to melt. Add the lemon zest and juice and whisk again until it all comes together. Taste and season with salt and white pepper. Set aside and keep warm.
- Put the fish in the oven and roast for exactly 8 minutes.
- While the fish is cooking heat a non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Add the butter and garlic. Once the butter begins to foam add the spinach, tossing it into the butter and adding more once the spinach begins to wilt, a handful at a time, until it is all wilted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- To serve lay a portion of spinach on a heated plate, top with a fish fillet and spoon a portion of the sauce over top. Serve immediately. Some boiled baby new potatoes would be lovely with this.
Look at how perfect and flaky that fish is and its beautiful colour. I am always so very impressed with the fish and seafood we get from Seafresh. Their service is impeccable, the packaging well done and environmentally friendly, and the product of exceptional quality and value. If you would like to know more about their products please click here. You really can't go wrong!
A few things about Seafresh:
- Same Day dispatch on orders received before 1 PM.
- All packages are carefully hand packed.
- Free delivery on orders above £50, £8 on orders below that amount.
- Responsibly and sustainably sourced.
- Air Blast Frozen at source within 4 hours of being caught.
- Wide variety to choose from.
Follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: theenglishkitchen@mail.com
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Cauliflower is a really popular low-carb option these days for those who are looking to cut back on their carbs.
It is one of several vegetables considered to be Cruciferous vegetables, or members of the brassica family.
Sometimes I like to treat Todd to a pub fare meal on a weeknight. Pubs here in the UK are somewhat similar to Diners in North America, in that they usually serve nice comfy meals, home style.
They also serve alcohol. Some do the meal thing really well and others not so well. It is hit and miss really. Some just re-heat frozen food.
They offer a variety of things on the menu, but most will offer meat pies and chips, roast dinners, fish and chips, curries, etc. and most will also have Gammon Steak, Egg & Chips.
You will normally be asked if you want a ring of pineapple with it or peas.
A gammon steak is like a thick slice of uncooked ham or green ham.
It can be smoked or unsmoked, and, unlike ham you MUST cook it before you eat it, like bacon in a way, but quite different in flavour and consistency.
It comes from the leg of a pig whereas bacon comes from the belly.
My husband will sometimes order the Gammon, Egg & Chips, but I have always found it quite disappointing myself.
Hardly worth the money paid. It does, however, make for a great weeknight supper at home.
Today I decided to make my husband a Gammon Steak, Egg & Chips dinner from scratch, here at home that he could really enjoy.
I did use oven chips, but I used really good ones, thick steak cut, gastro style chips . . . you could of course fry them from scratch if you wanted to but these are actually quite good.
In all truth that's all you get in most pubs anyways, deep fried frozen chips.
When we are eating eggs like this, I always like to use the freshest free range eggs that I can get.
With brilliant yellow yolks, they taste so good when simply fried in butter. Fried in butter until the edges get all crisp and brown, but the yolks are still runny.
I like to get the butter foaming and crack in the eggs.
Then I cook them slowly, basting them with the fat in the pan until the edges are crisp and golden, but the yolks still a bit wobbly . . .
The gammon is also fried. I rub it with some dry mustard powder first for a bit of spice.
I fry it in a bit of olive oil until crisp and caramelised on the edges and cooked through. It doesn't take long.
I added oven roasted cherry tomatoes on the vine that I cooked at the same time as the chips. Again not long.
Perfect!
I drizzled them with a bit of olive oil and scattered them with some sea salt and cracked black pepper before roasting. So tasty!
We had frozen petite pois with ours.
Simply cooked in the microwave. 2 minutes on high, in a small covered container does the trick. I never add any water.
All in all this was most delicious. My husband enjoyed his along with a slice of buttered bread on the side.
Yield: 2
Gammon Steak, Egg & Chips
Pub Fare on a weeknight for a simple supper.
ingredients:
- 1 thick sliced gammon steak, cut in half crosswise
- some olive oil
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
- 1 spring of cherry tomatoes on the vine
- 2 portions of frozen gourmet style oven chips
- knob of butter
- 2 large free range eggs
- 2 portions of frozen peas
instructions:
How to cook Gammon Steak, Egg & Chips
- Preheat the oven according to your package directions for the chips. Place them onto a baking sheet. Place the tomatoes on the same baking sheet, drizzling with some olive oil and sprinkling with salt and pepper. Cook according to the package directions.
- Clip the fatty edge of the gammon steak. Cut in half and rub it all over with the dry mustard powder and black pepper. Heat a bit of oil in a large non-stick skillet. Add the gammon steak pieces and cook on the first side until golden brown and caramelised on the edges, flip over and do the same on the other sides. Remove from the skillet and keep warm.
- Wipe out the pan. Add the knob of butter and heat the pan until the butter begins to foam. Crack in the eggs. Cook basting them occasionally with some of the butter from the pan with a spoon, until your eggs are to your desired doneness. Remove and keep warm.
- Cook the peas in a container in the microwave for about 2 minutes until done.
- Divide the chips between two heated plates along with the tomatoes, place a half gammon steak on each plate and top with a fried egg. Add a portion of the peas to each and serve immediately.
A simple supper like this makes a really nice mid-week meal every now and then. Its easy to make and quite delicious. My husband was really pleased with it, and in truth so was I.
I hope you will give it a go and picture yourself sitting back in the corner in a pub here in the UK, but a good one, one that serves tasty homemade from scratch food. Those are my favourite kinds!
Winter squash was not something I liked very much when I was a child. Maybe it was the way my mother cooked it, I'm not sure. To me it was just blah and tasteless and had no redeeming qualities. As an adult however I have fallen right in love with it!
There are many different varieties of Winter Squash. You will probably be familiar with Butternut Squash (which is my favourite). This one is called a Buttercup Squash. Its about the size of a large billiard ball. My friend Tina gifted us with a couple.
Winter Squashes are characterised with a hard inedible rind/ skin, and seeds, which some people like to toast and roast like Pepita's, which are the seeds of a pumpkin, which is another variety of Winter Squash.
This was my first time eating this variety of Winter Squash and let me tell you, they are as hard as bowling balls! The hardest part of prepping them was cutting them in half. I cannot imagine peeling them.
It might have been easier if I had a cleaver, but alas I don't so I just used my heavy chef's knife and cleaved it into one side of the squash through the middle . . .
And then I kept hammering the knife and the squash down onto the counter top until I had finally broken it in two.
Yes it was that hard. It was pretty clear that I wasn't going to be able to peel it and so I decided to roast the halves in the oven . . .
Which actually worked out really well. Once I had cut them in half and removed all the seeds and fibres, I placed them into a baking dish, cut sides up.
I seasoned the cut sides with a bit of salt and black pepper and I sprinkled some ground cinnamon over top . . .
Then I dropped a knob of butter into each cavity and drizzled in some pure Maple syrup.
I added boiling water to the dish to come about 1/4 of the way up the sides of the squash . . .
And then covered the whole dish tightly with some aluminium foil . . . baked them for half an hour . . .
Uncovered them and then baked them for a further 15 minutes. The insides were soft and tender and golden brown . . .
having absorbed some of that butter and maple syrup . . .
You could eat this right out of the skins . . .
But I actually used a teaspoon and scraped the insides out onto our dinner plates and let me tell you . . . it was gorgeous. Absolutely flipping gorgeous. I wish I had some more to cook now! I guess I will have to check at the farmer's market for some! This is a new favourite!
Yield: variable
Maple & Butter Baked Squash
This is simple and delicious. The hardest part is cutting the squash in half! You can make as many servings or as few as you wish to make.
ingredients:
For each two servings
- 1 buttercup squash
- 2 TBS butter
- 2 TBS maple syrup
- salt and black pepper to taste
- ground cinnamon
- boiling water
instructions:
How to cook Maple & Butter Baked Squash
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F, gas mark 4.
- Wipe your squash clean and then cut it in half through the middle. Be really careful when you are doing this. I put it on a damp cloth on the cutting board so that it wouldn't roll. I also put on my cut proof gloves. I took my sharpest knife and made a cut into one side of it by slamming the knife down onto it and then I banged the squash against the counter again and again, until the knife worked its way through the squash. Then I used a metal tablespoon to scoop out and discard the seeds and fibres in the centre.
- Once you have the squash halved and seeded place it into a baking dish large enough to hold it. Sprinkle the cut sides with salt, pepper and cinnamon. Put 1 TBS of butter and 1 TBS maple syrup into the centre cavity of each squash, Pour a bit of boiling water around them in the dish. Cover the dish tightly with foil.
- Roast in the oven for about 30 minutes. Uncover, baste and roast for a further 10 to 15 minutes until the flesh is knife tender.
- You can either serve them in the skins or scrape the flesh out. They are delicious either way!
I think this method of cooking would work with any of the smaller Winter Squashes. I hope you will give it a go. I think you will quickly come to see that this is an incredibly delicious way to enjoy them!
Up Tomorrow: Gammon Steak, Egg & Chips
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Social Icons