Sea bass cooked in burnt butter
This sea bass dish is cooked in burnt butter and served with crispy thin potatoes, hispi cabbage and samphire.
Ingredients
- vegetable oil: vegetable oil, for deep-frying
- King Edward: 2 starchy potatoes, such as Maris Piper or King Edward, peeled, sliced thinly on a mandolin and cut into 1–2cm/½–¾in discs
- butter: 350g/12oz salted butter
- sea bass: 2 x 150g/5½oz sea bass fillets
- garlic: 1 garlic clove, chopped
- shallot: ½ banana shallot, chopped
- white wine: 100ml/3½fl oz white wine
- double cream: 50ml/2fl oz double cream
- olive oil: 2 tbsp olive oil
- cabbage: ¼ hispi cabbage, chopped
- samphire: 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú samphire
- dill: ½ bunch fresh dill, chopped
- black pepper: salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat a deep fat fryer to 180C. Fry the potato discs in the deep fat fryer until light golden brown and crispy. Transfer to kitchen paper to drain.
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Burn the butter in a cast iron frying pan; this will take around 3 minutes to reach a dark brown colour (not black). Season the sea bass with salt and pepper and add to the butter in the pan, briefly basting the fish. Transfer the pan to the oven for 5 minutes. Carefully remove from the oven using oven gloves.
Transfer some of the burnt butter from the frying pan into a separate saucepan. Place over a medium heat, add the garlic and shallot and sweat for 2–3 minutes. Pour in the wine and cream and cook for a minute, then pass the sauce through a fine sieve. Keep warm until ready to use.
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and sweat the cabbage and samphire until wilted and cooked.
Serve the fish with the crispy potatoes, cabbage and samphire on top and garnish with the dill. Serve the sauce on the side.
