I cooked this dish for a friend of mine, Henry Gilbey, who is the most enthusiastic fisherman I have ever met. His whole life is geared towards fishing and yet he doesn’t like fish. This is the dish I chose for him because it works so well together and all the flavours are pretty irresistible. A simple fillet of bass is cooked on a cast-iron ribbed pan to give that flavour, then served with a warm vinaigrette made with a good fish stock reduction, dry vermouth and vanilla. Maybe Henry was just being polite but he did say it was very good.
Serves 4
4 x 100g (4 oz) fillets sea bass, skinned
100g (4 oz) clarified butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
50ml ( 2 fl oz) vermouth
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1 shallot, peeled and halved
1/2 vanilla pod
150ml (5 fl oz) fish stock
25g (1 oz) peeled, seeded and diced tomato
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 turns of the black pepper mill
1) Brush both sides of the sea bass fillets with a little of the clarified butter and season on bothsides with salt and pepper.
2) Split the piece of vanilla pod open lengthways, scrape out the seeds with a small teaspoon and very finely chop the pod. Put the seeds and the pod into a small pan with the vermouth, vinegar and shallot, bring to the boil and boil for a few minutes until reduced to about 1 tablespoon. Add the fish stock and boil once more until reduced to about 3 tablespoons. Remove the shallot halves; add the remaining clarified butter, tomato, chervil, salt and pepper and keep just warm over a very low heat.
3) Preheat a lightly oiled ridged griddle until very hot. Add the fish fillets and cook for 1 minuteon the skinned side and 30 seconds on the other side, pressing down on the top of each fillet in turn with the back of a fish slice to help mark them with the lines from the griddle. Lift onto 4 warmed plates and spoon 2 tablespoons of dressing to one side of each piece of fish.
Happy cooking.
