Sea Bass In A Salt Crust From Île De Ré Recipes

BAKED SEA BASS IN CRUST WITH PERNOD BEURRE BLANC

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
• Place the fish on a flat surface and sprinkle the cavity with salt and pepper. Stuff it with parsley and shallots.
• Roll out one sheet of puff pastry into a rectangle about 16 by 9 inches. Arrange the pastry on a large baking sheet. Arrange the fish lengthwise over the center of the pastry and brush around the fish with some of the egg yolk mixture.
• Roll out the second sheet into a rectangle and place it over the fish. Press the pastry around the sides of the fish to seal it. Use a sharp knife to cut away the pastry around the fish, leaving a border of about one-and-a-half inches. Use the sharp knife to vent the pastry in the middle of the fish if desired. If you wish, trim the pastry into the shape of a fish and decorate the top with a scale pattern or cutouts. Brush the pastry with the remaining egg yolk mixture.
• Place the fish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is lightly browned. Reduce the temperature to 400 degrees. If necessary, cover the crust with aluminum foil. Cook for 15 minutes longer.
• While the fish is baking, combine the shallots and wine in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until the wine has nearly evaporated.
• Add the cream and reduce by half. Add the butter quickly, one tablespoon at a time, whisking constantly. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the herbs, salt, pepper and Pernod.
• Remove the fish from the oven and serve with the Pernod beurre blanc sauce.

SEA BASS BAKED IN A SALT CRUST

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place salt in a baking dish, and heat in the oven for 15 minutes.
• Remove salt from oven, and increase temperature to 450 degrees. In the bottom of a roasting pan large enough for the fish, spoon about a third of the warm salt in the approximate shape and size of the fish. Lay 2 slices of lemon and 3 sprigs of tarragon on the salt.
• Lay the fish on top. Place the remaining lemon slices and tarragon on top of the fish. Spoon the remaining salt on top of the fish, patting it on the sides and making sure to cover it completely.
• Bake the fish 10 to 12 minutes, or 8 minutes for each inch of thickness. Check for doneness by inserting the tip of a knife through the salt crust into the thickest part of the fish and wedging it slightly to see if the flesh is cooked.
• Remove fish from oven, and quickly break off the salt, brushing off as much as possible. Transfer to a serving platter. At the table, remove the skin and fillet the fish. Pass the olive oil for sprinkling over the fillets.

BAKED SEA BASS IN CRUST WITH BASIL

Steps:

• Place all pastry ingredients except water in the bowl of a food processor and blend for 5 seconds. Add water gradually and blend until pastry pulls away from the sides and begins to form a ball. On a floured board, shape the dough into a ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it until ready to use.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• Place the fish on a flat surface. Sprinkle its cavity with salt and pepper and stuff it with the basil leaves.
• Divide the chilled pastry in half and roll out one half into a rectangle 16 by 9 inches. Arrange the pastry on a large baking sheet. Arrange the fish lengthwise over the center of the pastry. Brush the pastry all around the fish with the egg yolk mixture.
• Roll out the remaining pastry in a rectangle and place over fish. Press the pastry around the sides of the fish to seal it. Use a sharp knife to cut pastry around fish, leaving a border of about 1 1/2 inches. If you wish, trim the pastry into the shape of a fish and decorate the top with cutouts or a scale pattern using a No. 6 pastry tube to indent the dough. Brush pastry with remaining egg yolk mixture.
• Place the fish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until pastry is lightly browned. Reduce to 400 degrees. If necessary cover crust with aluminum foil. Cook for 15 minutes more. Serve immediately with tomato coulis with basil.

ROASTED CHILEAN SEA BASS WITH CHIVE OIL

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the chives in a food processor. Turn on the processor and add the olive oil through the feed tube in a thin steady stream. Season with salt and pepper. Stop to taste, then adjust, adding more oil, chives, salt or pepper as desired. Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl and reserve.
• Place the sea bass in a sauté pan or roasting pan just large enough to fit the fillets. Sprinkle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place in the oven and roast until the fish is just barely cooked in the center. It will continue to cook once it is removed from the oven. (It should take about 9 minutes per inch of thickness.)
• Transfer the sea bass to serving plates and sprinkle with the chive oil.

SEA BASS IN A SALT CRUST FROM ÎLE DE Ré

Steps:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together coarse salt, fine salt, flour, thyme and fennel. Add egg whites and mix for 2 to 3 minutes to make a flexible and firm dough; if dough is too dry, add more egg whites one at a time as needed.
• Roll dough out on parchment paper to a thickness of about 1/2 inch. Put vegetables in the cavity of the fish, and place fish in the center of the dough. Wrap fish entirely with dough, using the edges of the parchment to help lift the dough over the fish. Transfer parchment with encased fish to a shallow baking pan, and tear off excess parchment from around the fish.
• Bake for 25 minutes. Cut open and remove salt crust from fish. Remove the skin of the fish. Discard crust and skin, fillet the fish and, if desired, serve with a beurre blanc sauce.