Loup de mer (f) Seabass (en): roasted with potatoes, olives, capers, white wine, garlic and tomatoes

Popular demand and lots of interest I now add another recipe (my top mega favorite one) for a roasted Sea Bass with potatoes, olives, capers, white wine, garlic and tomatoes. This precious, possibly becoming rare fish due to high demands is also called Loup de mer in French, Seabass in English and Bar de ligne is Line caught seabass, so all the same. There are differences of provenance, i.e Chilean, Balck, European etc Seabass. A superb sea fish, one of the most precious and highly popular due to its firm and tasty texture, no small bones to fight with, fairly straight forward to grill, roast or steam and really nice and moist flesh. It is one of my favorites too, not a budget fish but a great hit on every dinner table with friends to impress or just a delicious Mediterranean (or oriental if differently cooked) dish. You can get wild seabass and seabass from farms.

read here more about seabass if you want to become a specialist on Wikipedia or on M&J Seafoods for a good weekly report of the situation, including availability and price guide (go direct to the weekly market report in the middle of the front page)

Seabass roasted with potatoes, olives, capers, white wine, garlic and tomatoes

ANYWAY, enough, here is my favorite way of preparing a lovely Seabass of about 1.6.-1.8 kg for 3-4, we usually eat one in two. Here is the recipe:

1 large Seabass, clean, scaled, some parsley inside
4-6 starchy potatoes, peeled, sliced 1.5cm
1 small glass of capers or caper apples
100 grams of Kalamata olives
Cherry or normal, sweet ripe tomatoes
Garlic
White wine, dry
Sea salt, pepper, the best fruity spicy virgin olive oil you can get your hands on
Baking paper, baking tray

Boil water for the potatoes, boil them in salted water a few minutes only so that they are still raw inside, strain, lay on baking tray, drizzle with good olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, about 1 dl of white wine, capers, tomatoes, garlic in whole cloves, and more olive oil. (not the olives yet).

Bake for 10 minutes at about 200 Celsius, then put the salt and pepper seasoned fish on top, bake in oven at 180 Celsius for about 20 minutes. Add the olives after about 15 minutes, if too early they burn / caramelize. Baste the fish with the liquid on the tray.

When cooked, the fish must come easy of the bones. Take skin of, fillet, serve, drizzle with olive oil and sea salt. The flavor of the fish, olive oil and white wine will make the potatoes moist and incredibly flavorsome. It is so simple but quite awesome dish.

Can you taste the sea? It just reminds me so much of the salty moist air when sitting in a fresh breeze on the coast in Spain…

Loup de Mer with Courgettes, Tomato, White Wine Sauce

This is a really good recipe if you are starving for a good piece of fish. It combines a ever so elegant tasting roast sebass with the sweetness of fennel and sunny freshness of vine tomatoes. The white wine sauce is not so Italian but gives it a intersting dimension. The flat parsley and basil round it all off. A drizzle of reduced balsmic breaks the soft roundness of the white wine sauce.

All together it’s somehow an inspiration from a Enrico Derflingher dish, he is a Italian Michelin starred chef I once worked with. He was executive chef in the White House and in the Buckingham Palace and many other places. Now he has a restaurant in Tokyo. We cooked it once at home after he gave me some professional instructions, which from real chefs are ususaly quite vague as many staps are logic for them. Below recipe works 100% and I did put this step by step instructions together for my dad a long time ago, I thought this should be shared here and now!

Loup de Mer with Mediterranean Vegetables

(Recipe for 4 persons)Ingredients and preparation

this picture is from my cuisine…home made. (the kitchen in our previous flat in Swtizerland)

Before you start:

New potatoes, approx 4-6 pieces per person, wash and boil until cooked, then place
under tin foil in réchaud. Don’t cook them in the steamer pot.

2-3 dl of dark balsamic vinegar (place in a pot and simmer slowly until reduced to a
thick sirup, keep aside)

White wine sauce: reduce some white wine with same amount of fish stock, add a dash of cream, mix with mixer and season with salt, pepper, a dash of tabasco, lemon juice.

Other preparation and ingredients:
4 whole Loup de Mer filets of 180-200 gr. each, filets cut in half i.e. 2x ½ per Person
4 Zucchetti (medium size) cleaned and cut in slices of 0.5-0.7 cm
1 Fennel cut in slices of 0.3-0.5 cm
1 whole garlic, only peeled
1 packet (500g) cherry tomatoes de-branched and washed
10 branches basil, de-branched and chopped roughly
10 branches of flat parsley, de-branched and chopped roughly
(all together you should have a good cup full of roughly chopped herbs, more basil
then parsley)
Extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and ground black pepperMise en place (approx. time to prepare vegetables is 45 minutes)

Cooking:
(the whole cooking will take max. 8-10 minutes. Important is that the vegetables are
crispy and the fish only cooked for about 4-5 minutes)1. Season fish with salt, pepper and olive oil

2. Pan Fry fish on the skin side in a medium hot pan. (Fish should sizzle lightly)

3. Place fish skin side up on a non-stick tray when skin side is golden crispy
(sauté only on the skin side) The bottom side of the fish must be raw.

4. Take a large sautée pan and heat medium, add plenty of olive oil, the whole
garlic clove and vegetables (stir and remove garlic after 2 minutes)

5. Sautée for 4-5 minutes (vegetables should not get to much colour and remain
very crispy)

6. Place fish in oven 160° Celsius for approx 4-5 minutes (the cooking stage

should rather be on the raw then over cooked side as the fish would dry out)

7. Add tomatoes to vegetable pan and sautée for other 2 minutes

8. Remove vegetables from stove, add herbs, season well with salt and pepper
and check the seasoning several times.

9. Slowly reheat the Balsamico Reduction, check that it is not too thick, otherwise
add some water.

Platting: (optional)

10. Prepare 4 hot plates; place 2-3 spoons of the vegetables in the middle, a few
tomatoes around it. (serve the potatoes separately)

11. Place Fish on top of the vegetables and sprinkle with some olive oil

12. Around the fish, put a few thick drops of balsamic reduction (where the arrows
are), the remaining can be served in a sauce pan.

13. Place the remaining vegetables in a gratin plate, put fish on top, cover with tin
foil and keep in warm but switched off oven.

14. enjoy