Sea bass with butter, caper, lemon sauce
Sea bass is one of my favorite fishes to order in a restaurant and I was ecstatic when I saw the fish place (yeah I like to use technical terms) started carrying it. Then I got it home and then the famous oh crap what now question popped into my head. Time to put the Homer Simpson thinking cap on:
“Alright brain, you don’t like me and I don’t like you. But let’s just get through this and then I can get back to killing you with beer”
Hmmm…what do I have well I have a massive jar of capers, butter (duh), green stuff, and hey leftover lemons reserved for ice tea but hey lemons are cheap. Wait is that a 1/2 cup of white wine in the fridge….freaking sweet time to go. Garlic had to go into the dish because I fear Dracula.
The sauce was simple and delicious that did not overpower the sea bass which also happens to be my number one restaurant gripe.
For this recipe you will need:
- 2 sea bass filets (or any other good whitefish)
- 1 shallot finely diced
- 2 cloves of garlic finely diced
- 1/2 cup of white wine
- Zest of 1/2 lemon
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 TB of capers
- 2 TB of parsley
- 5 TB of unsalted butter
- High temperature oil (I used canola)
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt and black pepper
About 30 minutes before you are ready remove the filets from the fridge and let them sit on the counter so they come up to room temperature (this is essential for even cooking).
In a small saucepan over medium add in a good glug of extra virgin olive oil and the shallot and garlic. Let the shallot and garlic saute for a minute.
Add in the 1/2 cup of white wine and bring to a boil. Reduce by 1/2 (about 5 minutes).
Turn off the heat and add in the capers, lemon zest, lemon juice, parsley, and 4 TB of unsalted butter. Cover and set aside.
Salt and pepper the sea bass filets. In a large skillet (I had to go with my favorite cast iron) over medium add in 2 TB of the high temperature oil and 1 TB of the unsalted butter. Once the butter stops foaming add in the sea bass filets. Cook the sea bass for five minutes a side or until desired doneness is reached.
Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve the sea bass with the sauce drizzled over top.
That sea bass meal looks good! I have been wanting to try sea bass for a while now. The sauce sounds really tasty!
Now this looks fantastic. I’m a huge fish fan, so I’ll be giving this a go sometime this week. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
stellar on-the-fly recipe! more importantly, i fully appreciate your homer quote (and the blues brothers line you mentioned on my chicago post). mr simpson doesn’t pull any punches.
Ahhh, the budda’, it makes everything alright doesn’t it?
This looks delicious and has me thinking I’ve got to have fish for dinner. I wish bass were cheaper…there’s a fish I could eat all the time
I absolutely LOVE sea bass, and this looks great and sounds drool worthy. Must get the hubby to make sea bass soon
and everyone should have the fear of Dracula. Garlic makes the world go round!