Perfectly Crispy Sea Bass

So you’ve splurged on the $20-a-pound wild Chilean sea bass.  And now it’s sitting there in the fridge trying to intimidate you.  Mocking your cooking intentions with its pricey pedigree.  Don’t take that trash talk from the fish, people.  As with most expensive ingredients, the key is doing as little as possible and it will all come out ok.  

The Goods:

• Sea bass fillets, skin on
• Wondra or other fine flour
• White pepper, sea salt
• Peanut oil

The Execution:

Oven to 425º.  Lightly coat the fillets with the flour, sprinkle with sea salt and white pepper.   Get a pan hot on the stovetop, add a drizzle of oil to lightly coat the pan.  When the oil is shimmering and hot (but before it smokes), add the fillets to the pan skin side down.  Let cook for 3 minutes.  Gently slide a spatula underneath to release the skin from the pan and flip.  Then the whole thing into the oven until the internal temp is about 130°.   Timing the removal of the fish will vary based on how thick it is.  In the one above, it took about 4 minutes.  

The Takeaway:

A great spring dish, served here over mint-pea soup, and garnished with pea shoots, chiffonade of mint and some pickled red onion for a little zip.

p.s.  Some recipes call for an internal temperature for sea bass of 150º, but those people should be ashamed of themselves.  The carryover will get it to about 155º — that’s like firm and almost dry.  We want succulent, melty fish that parts gently into beautiful flakes under the light press of a fork.  You ain’t getting that at 155º.  

Another way to judge is to slide a bamboo skewer into the side of the fish — if the skewer meets no resistance the fish is done.  It it doesn’t slide through, then your fish is under (or way over).  

• crispy skin
• intimidating ingredients
• mint and pea soup
• pickled red onions
• sea bass
• spring dishes