Pan-fried sea bass with citrus-dressed broccoli*Valentine's Day
- 2 sea bass fillets, about 140g each (see tips, below)
- 1 small head of broccoli
- 1 orange
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 4 tbsp small capers
- 6 anchovies, roughly chopped
- 1 lemon
-
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 15 mins
Moderately easy
Serves 2
- Before you start cooking, get
everything prepared. Trim each sea
bass fillet so they are both the same
shape, then score the skin, cutting into the
flesh slightly, 5 or 6 times at about 1cm
intervals. 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 rest of
the orange into a bowl. Cut the broccoli into
medium-size florets.
- To make the warm broccoli salad,
cook the florets in a pan of boiling
salted water for 1 min until just
cooked. While the broccoli is cooking, put a
frying pan on to heat. As soon as the broccoli
is cooked, drain it, then tip straight into the
hot frying pan to ‘scorch’ out all the moisture.
- Turn off the heat, then scatter the
orange segments over the broccoli.
Toss for a few moments just to heat
through, then tip 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 out the pan. 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 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, then cook
until they start to crisp. Grate over the lemon
zest and squeeze in the juice of ½ the lemon.
If there isn’t enough juices in the pan to
drizzle over both plates, add a splash more
oil. You are now ready to plate up.