Striped Bass In Grape Leaves Recipes

STRIPED BASS WITH TOMATO AND BASIL CREAM

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Make cream sauce: Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add scallion and saute until tender. Add tomato and basil. Add chardonnay and cook until liquid is reduced by half. Add heavy cream, reduce the heat, and simmer until the desired thickness is reached. Keep warm until ready to serve.
• After you have started the sauce, bake the fillet: place butter, chardonnay, and verjus in a baking pan. Season fish with salt and pepper and place in pan. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes, or until fish is cooked through; the fish should be opaque throughout and a knife should slide in easily.
• Place fillets on a serving plate and spoon over the sauce. Serve with a fresh crusty baguette and a crisp green salad.

GRILLED STRIPED BASS

Steps:

• Combine oil, lemon juice, thyme or oregano, garlic, and pepper in a large shallow bowl. Add fish to marinade, and turn to coat; cover with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator 30 minutes.
• Heat a grill or grill pan over medium-high heat. Remove fish from marinade, letting excess drip off. Place on grill, skin side down, and season with salt. Grill until skin is lightly browned and starting to crisp. Carefully turn fillets, and cook until well browned and cooked through (center will be opaque), 5 to 6 minutes. Garnish with chives and lemon wedges, if desired. Serve hot or at room temperature.

STRIPED BASS WITH ARTICHOKES AND OLIVES

Steps:

• Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 475 degrees F. Season the fish with salt and pepper and refrigerate until ready to use. Remove the zest from the lemon using a vegetable peeler (reserve the lemon). Combine the lemon zest, parsley, garlic, 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 teaspoon salt in a food processor. With the motor running, gradually add the bread and pulse several times to make coarse crumbs. Spread the breadcrumbs evenly in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Arrange the artichokes, olives and tomatoes around the edge and bake until the exposed breadcrumbs in the middle are toasted, about 15 minutes. Remove the baking dish from the oven. Scoop out the toasted breadcrumbs and set aside. Add the fish to the baking dish and top with the toasted breadcrumbs. Bake until the fish is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Cut the reserved lemon into wedges and squeeze on top.

STRIPED BASS WITH HEIRLOOM TOMATO SCAMPI

Steps:

• To cook the bass:
• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• In a large ovenproof nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Season the fish liberally with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the lemon zest and juice. Once the oil begins to shimmer, place the fillets skin-side-down in the pan and let them cook, without moving them, until the skin is crisp and golden brown, 45 seconds to 1 minute. Give a light push to loosen the skin from the pan. Add the thyme sprigs to the pan. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake until the fish flakes easily with a fork, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove fish from the oven and transfer to paper towels.
• To make the scampi:
• In a large skillet, heat the garlic oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, shallots, and fennel seeds and cook, stirring frequently, until the shallots are translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the celery and capers and cook until the celery has softened, about 2 minutes. Add the wine to the pan and cook until it is reduced by half, about 1 minute. Add the vinegar, lemon zest and juice, tomatoes, and basil and cook for 1 to 2 minutes to incorporate the flavors and heat the tomatoes through.
• Serve the bass fillets topped with the tomato scampi.

STRIPED BASS WITH POTATOES AND OLIVES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 425 degrees. Use a little oil to brush the bottom of a shallow baking dish that can go to the table and is large enough to hold the fish in one piece. Spread potatoes in dish, overlapping, and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons oil. Season with salt and pepper. Bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven.
• Season flesh side of fish with salt and pepper. Place fish skin side up on the potatoes, sprinkle on remaining oil, scatter olives around and place bay leaves on top. Cover with parchment paper and bake 20 minutes, or until fish is just cooked through at the thickest part (a sharp knife will penetrate easily). Garnish with lemon and serve.

STRIPED BASS WITH FRESH FIGS

Steps:

• Place 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add shallots and garlic and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add figs and continue to sauté another minute or two, until they are warmed through and just start to soften. Sprinkle with cloves. Add saba and continue cooking until the syrup just coats the bottom of the pan. Stir in wine. Remove figs and as many shallots as you can from the pan, draining well.
• Increase heat to medium-high and cook sauce until wine has reduced by half. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add 2 tablespoons of the butter bit by bit, swirling it in. Cook a minute or so more, until sauce starts to become syrupy. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.
• Heat a broiler. Place rack about 4 inches from the source of heat. Dry fish. Dust skin side of bass or bottom side of halibut with flour. Flip fillet and season top surface well with salt and pepper. Heat remaining butter on medium-high in a large, heavy skillet, preferably cast iron. Place fish, floured side down, in skillet and sear 2 minutes. Brush top surface of fish with some of the sauce and place fish under the broiler. Broil about 7 minutes, until just cooked through. Remove from heat. Transfer fish to a warm platter.
• Return figs and shallots to the sauce, heat on medium a minute or so, then spoon sauce with figs around the fish on the platter. Serve.

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.