Simple Sauteed Sea Bass

I love Sea Bass. I find it hard to believe that before I met The Hub, I'd never tried it, but its true! At least if I did have it, I really don't remember it. Yet it's so simple to cook and so light and delicious! When I lived at home, my mother usually cooked cod (fish fingers or steaks in batter) apart from the rare occasion when someone we knew went out fishing and caught some mackerel.

We usually buy our sea bass pre-packed from Tesco, as I can guarantee I can get some without the (seemingly mandatory) additional knob of unwanted herb butter. Once bought, the question always is, what to do with it.

Sometimes we steam it, more often we have it sautéed - Baby loves its crispy finish, and I must admit, so do I. Whichever way we cook it, we usually have rice with it too.

Usually I prepare the carrots first (the only vegetable that Baby will knowingly eat, at the moment) and put on the water for steaming the carrots. Occasionally The Hub sautees the carrots (having steamed them for a bit first) with some courgette, but usually, we just steam the veggies.

Then, I wash the rice and put it in the rice cooker, together with a little water. Our rice cooker was a wedding present and is probably our most used kitchen appliance (after the kettle and the coffee machine). If you like rice, you should seriously consider getting one - perfect rice, every time! The other great thing about it is that because you don't need to watch it, you can get on with whatever else you need to do, whilst the rice is cooking.

You don't necessarily want the one we've got though! Although the extra steaming layer on the top is a great idea, ours has an annoying little bit around the bottom, which is hideous to clean out by hand!

Sautéed Sea Bass - sorted!

The next job is to put the carrots into the steamer and start preparing either broccoli or courgette, to accompany the carrots. I need to be quick, or the rice will cook before they're ready. Although the rice cooker can keep the rice hot and resting whilst they finish off, I usually find the rice just a little bit dry, if we do this.

The last stage is sauteeing the fish. This stage is really quick, if you have the right pan! We really need a proper sautee pan. The teflon coating on the last one was ruined, when something got burned on. Oops! However, we (or rather The Hub - I always get him to do this bit, as he's such a dab hand at it) still do quite well with our little frying pan. He just cooks  them one or two at a time, as that is all that will fit. 

Basically, he heats up some olive oil in the pan (enough olive oil to cover the bottom), then fries the sea bass fillets on both sides, until they're crispy and the flesh has turned from translucent to opaque. If you'd like step-by-step instructions, here's a link to a great post, with pictures of every stage.

Once cooked, we just serve the sea bass with the rice and veggies. Usually, I just like my fish plain, so I can enjoy the flavour. Baby has the same and really enjoys it that way - you should hear the, 'Mmm, mmm!' noises she makes whilst eating! 

However, if that would be a bit boring for you, then you could squeeze a bit of lemon over it or do what The Hub does - he has been known to splash a bit of soy sauce over his. If you're gluten free you could use a glug of Tamari gluten free soy sauce, I don't. Tamari sauce actually makes me more uncomfortable than normal soy, with the gluten in! How bizarre is that?

If you don't fancy rice and soy, you might like to try serving your sea bass in a Mediterranean style. Try it with new potatoes, small green beans and a tomato-based sauce. 

However, you decide to serve it, enjoy!!

Another simple supper:
Sausage Casserole