Seared Striped Bass On Chive Whipped Potatoes With Truffle Vinaigrette Recipes

SEARED WILD STRIPED BASS ON CHIVE WHIPPED POTATOES

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F. Season the fillets on both sides with salt and pepper.
• Place a large, non-stick saute pan over very high heat. When hot, add the oil, and swirl to coat bottom of pan. Brush each fillet (skin-side only) generously with butter.
• Place the fish fillets into the hot pan, skin side down, and brown for 2 minutes over high heat. Place the pan in the oven for 3 minutes. Serve warm from the oven, with Chive Whipped Potatoes, Truffle Vinaigrette, and Sauteed Shiitakes.
• Put the potatoes in a saucepot and cover with cold water. Add salt and bring to a boil. Cook the potatoes until tender, about 15 minutes. Strain the water out of the pot and mash the potatoes with the cream, butter, salt and pepper. Stir in the chive oil and sliced chives, and serve.
• Chive Oil: 1 cup vegetable oil, well chilled 1 bunch fresh chives, sliced into very fine pieces Salt
• In a food processor, blend the oil and chives together. Season to taste with salt. Reserve the remainder in a plastic squeeze bottle, refrigerated.
• Place chicken stock in a saucepan and reduce liquid to 1/2 cup. Place chopped shallots in a large, stainless steel mixing bowl, pour hot stock over them, and steep for 10 minutes. Add the vinegar, season to taste, and slowly add the oils, whisking constantly to emulsify. Set aside until ready to use.
• Yield: 2 1/2 cups
• Sauteed Shiitakes: 1 cup thinly sliced shiitakes 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon butter Salt and pepper, to taste 2 tablespoons chopped shallots 2 teaspoons chopped garlic 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves 1/2 cup haricots verts, blanched 1/4 cup diced and seeded tomato
• Saute the mushrooms in olive oil and butter. Season with salt and pepper. Add shallots, garlic, and thyme. Saute until shallots and garlic turn translucent. Add the haricots verts, combine and remove from heat. Stir in the dice tomato and serve.
• To serve: mound hot mashed potatoes in center of plate. Top with 1 wild striped bass fillet, skin side up. Surround with truffle vinaigrette and shiitakes.

STRIPED BASS WITH ROASTED SHALLOT AND GARLIC PUREE AND LEEKS

Steps:

• For the fish, combine the peppers, sugar and rosemary. Use a sharp knife to make crosshatch marks on the skin of each fish fillet. Rub the spice mixture into the skin and marinate for 1 hour.
• Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place garlic and shallots in a small baking dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and olive oil. Cover with aluminum foil and bake until soft, about 30 minutes. Let cool to room temperature. Peel garlic and shallots and puree in a food processor with the heavy cream. Set aside.
• While garlic mixture roasts, make the leeks: Combine the water, sugar and lemon rind in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the mixture turns a golden color. Have an oiled baking sheet ready. Stir the leeks into the caramel and immediately scrape onto the baking sheet. Cool. Separate the leeks and set aside.
• To make the vinaigrette, place all ingredients except the chives in a blender and blend until well combined. Stir in chives and set aside. Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the oil. When the pan is hot, add the fish, skin side down, and cook until browned, about 2 to 3 minutes. Turn the fish and cook until the fish is firm to the touch, about 1 to 2 minutes.
• Place even portions of the shallot and garlic puree in the center of 6 plates. Place the fish over the puree. Sprinkle with the caramelized leeks. Pour some of the vinaigrette on each plate in a circle around the fish. Serve immediately.

SEARED WILD STRIPED BASS WITH SAUTEED SPRING VEGETABLES

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with ice water and salt it well. Place the asparagus in the boiling water and cook until the water comes back to a rolling boil. Remove and place it immediately in the salted ice water. When the asparagus has cooled completely, remove it from the water and reserve. Repeat this process with the sugar snap peas and then the fava beans. You can use the same blanching water for all of the veggies, just be sure to always do the fava beans last. Fava beans have very high iron content and will turn the blanching water black. After the beans are blanched and cooled, remove the tough outer skin to reveal a lovely spring green fava bean.;
• Coat a large saute pan with olive oil. Smash the three garlic cloves with the heel of your hand and add to the saute pan. Bring the pan to a medium high heat. When the garlic has become golden brown and very aromatic remove it from the pan and discard it. It has fulfilled its garlic destiny. Add the mushrooms and stock, season generously with salt, and saute for 1 minute. Add the prepared veggies, season with salt and saute until all the ingredients are coated with oil and hot and almost all the stock has evaporated. Serve immediately or later at room temperature.;
• Take the fish out of the refrigerator about 10 to 15 minutes before using. Pat the skin dry with a paper towel and season the fish on both sides with salt. Heat a large saute pan coated generously with extra virgin olive oil over high heat. Coat the bottom of another slightly smaller saute pan with olive oil. Gently place the fish fillets skin side down in the saute pan and place the other saute pan directly on top of the fish. The purpose of this is to gently press the skin of the bass onto the bottom of the saute pan to create a lovely crispy fish skin. Be sure to oil the bottom of the top saute pan or the fish will stick to it. After a couple of minutes remove the top saute pan from the fish, this will allow the steam to escape and the skin to become very crispy. As fish cooks it turns from translucent to opaque. The idea is to cook the fish 2/3's of the way on the skin side and flip it over for the last 1/3 of the cooking time. The rule for fish is about 7 to 8 minutes per inch of thickness, a little less if you like your fish more on the rare side.
• Serve the fish over the sauteed spring veggies and call your self a superstar!

ROASTED STRIPED BASS WITH CHIVE AND SOUR CREAM SAUCE

Steps:

• Make sauce:
• Blend sour cream, water, juice, salt, and chives in a blender until mixture just turns pale green. Season with pepper.
• Prepare fish:
• Preheat oven to 450°F.
• Remove any pin bones from fish with tweezers or needle-nose pliers and pat fish dry with paper towels. Score skin in several places with a thin sharp knife to prevent fish from curling (do not cut through flesh) and season fish with salt and pepper.
• Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking, then sear fish, skin sides down, in 2 batches until skin is golden brown and crisp, 3 to 4 minutes (fish will not be fully cooked). Transfer, skin sides up, to an oiled shallow baking pan.
• Roast fish, uncovered, in middle of oven until just cooked through, 7 to 8 minutes.
• Spoon 3 tablespoons sauce onto each of 6 plates and top with potatoes and zucchini. Squeeze a lemon wedge over each fillet, then place fish, skin sides up, over vegetables. Top fish with sprouts.
• *Available at farmers markets.

WILD STRIPED BASS WITH HEIRLOOM TOMATO VINAIGRETTE AND PROVENCAL OLIVE POTATOES

Steps:

• In medium bowl combine vinegar and salt; whisk until salt is dissolved. Slowly whisk in olive oil, adding more if necessary, until mixture has emulsified. Fold in tomatoes and thyme, season with pepper; set aside
• In small food processor, puree green olives, garlic and oil. Remove and set aside. In medium pan cover potatoes with cold water, bring to a boil. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes until tender, drain well. Transfer to mixer bowl, process using paddle. While mixing, drizzle in oil mixture until smooth. Fold in nicoise olives, season with salt and pepper.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Season with salt and pepper . In large saute pan, heat oil until smoking. Place fillets in pan, flesh side down, sear for 30 seconds. Remove pan from heat, place in oven, roasting fish until almost opaque, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from oven. Add butter to pan, turn fillets over, cooking skin side of fish on medium heat for 1 minute. Turn fish over again, remove from pan. Place on paper towel to drain. Place small amount of potatoes on warm serving plate. Place fillet on top, spoon vinaigrette over fish. Garnish with thyme or basil.

PAN-FRIED STRIPED BASS WITH LEMON SAUCE

Steps:

• For the sauce, whisk together: 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest, 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, Salt, Fresh-ground black pepper.
• Taste for salt and lemon juice and adjust as desired. The sauce will separate as it sits; this is not a problem.
• Season: 4 pieces striped bass, skin on (4 to 6 ounces each) with: Salt, Fresh-ground black pepper.
• Choose a heavy-bottomed pan for frying the fish. Take another, slightly smaller pan that will fit into the pan for the fish, and wrap its bottom with foil. This pan will be used as a weight to hold the fish flat against the frying pan to ensure that all of the skin will cook and crisp. (You will see the fish contract when it goes into the hot pan, as the skin shrinks on contact with the heat.) Warm the larger pan over medium-high heat. When hot, pour in: Olive oil, enough to generously coat the bottom.
• Add the pieces of bass, skin side down, and place the foil-wrapped pan on top of the fish. Cook until the skin is brown and crispy, about 7 minutes. Check now and then to see that the fish is indeed browning, but not overbrowning. Adjust the heat up or down to speed up or slow down the cooking as needed. When the skin is browned, remove the top pan and turn the fish. Cook for another minute or so, until the fish is just cooked through, but is still moist and tender inside. Meanwhile whisk the lemon sauce together again and pour it onto a warm plate. Serve the fish skin side up, on top of the sauce.
• Garnish the fish with a couple spoonfuls of chopped tender herbs such as parsley, chives, chervil, cilantro, or basil.
• Soak, rinse, and squeeze dry a tablespoon or so of capers. When the fish is cooked add the capers to the hot pan and sauté for a minute or two. Remove with a slotted spoon and scatter over the fish.
• Make a Beurre Blanc (Warm Butter Sauce; page 228) instead of the olive oil sauce.