Pan-Fried Sea Bass Fillets in a Pastis & Caper Butter Sauce
Pan-Fried Sea Bass Fillets in a Pastis & Caper Butter Sauce
served with Marsh Samphire
Whole Sea Bass
In my second Fishy post of today, I bring you a sophisticated and elegant sea bass recipe – beautifully fresh Scottish sea bass fillets that are pan-fried in a butter, pastis and caper sauce with cherry tomatoes, and then served on a bed of marsh samphire with a mesclun salad on the side. I received these sea bass fillets from John at Delish Fish, and as usual, they were already prepared and ready to cook. Sea bass is a wonderful fish, quite mild and soft and usually always cooked with the skin on; I pan-fried these fillets and they only took 5 minutes to cook on both sides, which resulted on a crispy skin and soft white meaty flesh. The steamed marsh samphire married so well with the fish and the sauce brought the whole dish together beautifully. All that was needed was a side salad of mesclun leaves and a wedge of lemon – it was a superb luncheon dish, that we all enjoyed.
Pan-Fried Sea Bass Fillets with a Buttery Caper & Pastis sauce and served with Marsh Samphire and Mesclun leaves
This recipe would make a perfect fish course for a dinner party, or as a main course if served with two sea bass fillets per person. It was simple to cook and yet the fabulous results belied the ease in which I threw this together! The star of the dish is the sea bass fillets, along with the buttery aniseed sauce…….if you are not keen on aniseed, although the flavour is very subtle, then add a splash of white wine instead of the pastis. Sea bass is a versatile fish with a superb sweet, white, texture – it is similar in flavour to sea bream, and the best sea bass is caught in the North East Atlantic, where mine originated from. You will see sea bass being cooked quite often on Masterchef, I notice that it is used a lot by the contestants in the popular BBC cooking competition…..and I think my recipe is quite “cheffy” too!
Pan-Fried Sea Bass – Sea Bass has a wonderful sweet flavour
That’s it for today – I hope you have enjoyed my fishy duo today – many thanks to John for sending me the fish to sample and taste….as always, I enjoyed cooking with the variety that was sent to me, as becomes a fish fanatic! See you tomorrow with a sweet treat and then more pies to follow later on this weekend, as well as a cake, hopefully! Bye for now and have a great day, Karen.
Pan-Fried Sea Bass Fillets with a Buttery Caper & Pastis sauce and served with Marsh Samphire and Mesclun leaves
Pan-Fried Sea Bass Fillets in a Pastis & Caper Sauce
Print recipe
| Serves | 2 |
| Prep time | 5 minutes |
| Cook time | 10 minutes |
| Total time | 15 minutes |
| Allergy | Fish |
| Meal type | Lunch, Main Dish, Salad |
| Misc | Gourmet, Serve Hot |
| Region | British |
| By author | Karen S Burns-Booth |
Ingredients
- 4 medium sea bass fillets (or 6 fillets if they are small)
- 50g butter
- 8 to 10 cherry tomatoes (halved)
- 1 tablespoon capers (with a little of the vinegar added too, about 1 teaspoon)
- splash of Pastis (such as Pernod or Ricard, about 1 tablespoon)
- salt and pepper, to season
- caper berries (to garnish)
- cooked marsh samphire (to serve)
- salad (to serve)
- lemon wedges (to serve)
Directions
| Step 1 | Put the butter into a large frying pan and melt the butter before adding the pastis, halved cherry tomatoes and the capers. Cook over a medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes and then push the capers and tomatoes to the side of the pan. |
| Step 2 | Turn the heat up and add the sea bass fillets skin side down, cook over a high heat for 2 to 3 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of the sea bass fillets. Then turn the fillets over and fry for a further 2 minutes. |
| Step 3 | Arrange the cooked samphire on the plates, with some salad leaves to one side; place the cooked sea bass fillets on top of the samphire in a small stack, and then spoon the tomato and caper sauce over the sea bass fillets. |
| Step 4 | Add a wedge of lemon to the plate as well as two caper berries to garnish the sea bass and serve immediately. |
Pan-Fried Sea Bass Fillets with a Buttery Caper & Pastis sauce and served with Marsh Samphire and Mesclun leaves
Marie says
Sad to say I have never eaten Sea Bass Karen. You do make it look very appealing! What a delicious looking dish! xxoo
Karen says
Think you would like it Marie – it is soft and sweet, and not at all strong in flavour, a lovely fish for pan frying and roasting too.
Dominic says
i don’t eat enough fish… fact… this looks simply stunning and I adore samphire so this is really a wonderful dish for me and very inspiring. I think I must try some more fish dishes on the blog, it’s good to show this type of variety. Lovely photography as usual xx
Karen says
Thanks Dom – this was one of the best recipes I have cobbled together recently, I was very pleased with the results! I bet you will come up with some wonderful fishy dishes.
Working London mummy says
I love sea bass. One of my faves. This is wonderful recipe
Karen says
One of my favourite fishy on the dishy too Nazima! THANKS! xx
laura@howtocookgoodfood says
I shouldn’t read your posts at this time of night as you always make things I want to eat. Fish for me is better than meat but I rarely cook it apart from when I am in France or on the coast in the UK. Love samphire too x
Karen says
Thanks Laura! This fish is lovely Scottish fish – but, like you, I also east a lot of fish in France too…..and oysters!
Javelin Warrior says
TWO fish recipes in one day! You’ve been busy – love the mix of ingredients here, although I’m off to Google a couple I’m not familiar with 🙂
Karen says
Just shout if you need help with any of the ingredients! Thanks for stopping by……Karen
Ruth says
This looks lovely Karen. I always mean to eat more fish but never quite get round to venturing further than mackerel every now and again.
Do you mind if I ask what sort of camera you use? I always love your pictures x
Karen says
Thanks Ruth! I am a big lover of fish, and we eat it several times a week, as well as a veggie meal or two, that leaves about 3 days for meat. Thanks for your comments on my photos…..MOST of the photos that I post on my blog, those that are taken as quick post-cooking and pre-eating snaps, are taken with my wonderful bridge camera, an Olympus Pen E-PL1 on manual SLR mode; other photos are taken with my Canon EOS 400 DSLR. These fishy photos were taken with my Olympus with Panasonic Lumix pancake lens.
A Trifle Rushed says
What a lovely recipe, I love sea bass, we occasionally catch some off the boat in the summer! And isn’t samphire back breaking to gather! Jude x
Karen says
Thanks Jude, yes, Samphire is dreadful to harvest!
Kentish Keg-Meg says
Great recipe as I love sea bass.
Karen says
Thanks Keg-Meg, I am a big lover of sea bass too!
Ms Cosgrove says
This has now become my go to seabass recipe. Lovely flavours, I’m really lucky living by the sea and having a fisherman friend who gets me the freshest fish, I’ve made this recipe loads of times now and never get bored of it.
Karen Burns-Booth says
Thanks so much – I am delighted that you love this recipe as much as we do too! Karen