Recipe: Sea bass with olives and tangelo
Two weeks ago, I returned home from my European excursion with a small helping of jet lag, a renewed sense of direction in life, a head full of stories, and a list of recipes to cook and bake from each country I visited. A lengthy list, including everything from vague collections of ingredients scribbled down off of menus and notes I jotted down in my notebook while eating (“hints of cinnamon and… something orange-y?”) to exact recipes shared with me by locals, enthusiastic to be passing on the secrets of their country’s cuisine.
This particular recipe is inspired by a dish I had at José, a Spanish tapas restaurant that I ate at not just once, but two times while in London. It might seem odd that one of the meals I was most excited to recreate once I got back home was based on the cuisine of a country that I didn’t even visit, but the bold simplicity of the flavours in this dish were more than enough to propel me straight into the kitchen for some serious experimentation. This dish isn’t supposed to be an exact recreation of what I ate at José, but my own take on the flavours…
Sea Bass with black olives, tangelo, and green onion on crispy potatoes
Ingredients (Serves 2)
- 2 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled
- 4 small sea bass fillets
- Black olives, pitted and chopped
- 3 green onion stalks, chopped
- 2 tangelos (or 2 regular oranges if tangelos aren’t available). Squeeze the juice from one of them; zest, then peel and slice the other into thick rounds.
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Mixed salad greens
- Olive oil
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 350˚F
- Slice the potatoes as thinly as possible (using a mandolin if you have one). Drizzle olive oil on a baking sheet, then spread the potatoes over the baking sheet, taking care to overlap them as little as possible. Brush with more oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for fifteen to twenty minutes, flipping potatoes over once, until they have browned around the edges and are beginning to crisp up.
- While the potatoes are baking, prepare the salad and the sauce for the fish. Mix about 2 tablespoons of tangelo juice with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add some pepper, then toss with the salad greens. Set aside.
- Heat some olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat – it should be shimmering but not smoking. Sauté the garlic for about 2 minutes, then add the olives. Sauté for another minute, then add a generous splash of tangelo juice (about 2 tablespoons). Stir in the tangelo zest, then remove from the heat.
- In another frying pan, heat more olive oil over medium high heat. Fry the sea bass fillets, skin-side down, for 2 minutes. Flip over and fry for another 1 to 2 minutes, until fish is just opaque in the middle and has started to brown slightly. Remove from the heat.
- Divide the potatoes between two plates. Place two of the sea bass fillets on top of the potatoes, then spoon the olive mixture over top. Sprinkle with the chopped green onions. Add a couple of tangelo slices and a small portion of the salad greens tossed in the tangelo vinaigrette. Serve and eat immediately.
People Are Saying...
Liz
I’m drooling! I’ve only had sea bass once in my whole life but it was delicious.
Question: I see the recipe calls for olives but what do I do with them? I don’t see that part in the directions.
Sara White
Whoops, thanks for catching that, Liz! I totally forgot to mention that the olives get added in during step 4, right after the garlic gets sautéed. I’ve updated it in the recipe too! I’ve got a long way to go before I’m a reliable recipe writer…
♡hellovanny // WEEKLINKS
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