Baked Mediterranean Sea Bass with Stewed Eggplant and Zucchini
- 1 Mediterranean sea bass, 6 1/2 pounds (3 kg)
- 4 teaspoons cooking olive oil (2 cl)
- 1 ounce butter (30 g)
- fleur de sel
Pepper Sauce
- 7 ounces fennel bulbs (200 g)
- 7 ounces onions (200 g)
- 6 cloves unpeeled garlic
- 1 pound ripe tomatoes (500 g)
- 3/4 ounce flat-leaf parsley (20 g)
- 1 ounce wild arugula (30 g)
- 4 1/2 tablespoons basil (10 g)
- 2 3/4 ounces sun-dried tomato paste (80 g)
- 5 1/2 tablespoons light chicken stock (8 cl)
- 3 1/2 fluid ounces olive oil (10 cl)
- 1 1/4 teaspoons coarsely ground Sarawak pepper (5 g)
Zucchini and Eggplant
- 10 1/2 ounces eggplant (300 g)
- 5 zucchini, with blossoms
- 4 zucchini blossoms
- 18 wedges oven-dried tomatoes
- 3 1/2 ounces spring pearl onions (100 g)
- 3 1/2 tablespoons olive oil (5 cl)
- 1 ounce wild arugula (30 g)
- 1/2 ounce basil (10 g)
- 4 1/2 tablespoons fresh marjoram (10 g)
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1 clove garlic
Instructions
Step 1: Sea Bass
Carefully scale, trim and clean the fish. Rinse under running water and pat dry on a cloth. Remove the head and the tail. Remove the veins and the eyes from the fish head, and leave it to soak in a basin of cold water.
Cut away the fillets of fish from the bones and divide each fillet into 2 steaks, 4 1/2 ounces (180 g), each.
Put some olive oil and butter in a cast iron sauté pan, and start cooking the fish, skin-side down. Place a weight on the pieces of fish to make the skin very crisp.
When cooked, season the fish with fleur de sel and freshly ground pepper.
Step 2: Pepper Sauce
Thinly slice the onions and the fennel, and sweat them without browning with the unpeeled garlic in a saucepan of olive oil. Add the quartered tomatoes and stew, then add the chicken stock.
Clean the fish head well, slice in two and place one half in the saucepan along with the coarsely ground pepper. Cook for 40 minutes. Add half the parsley and basil, and infuse.
Strain this stock. Reduce, skimming regularly. Add the tomato paste, the rest of the basil and parsley leaves, and the arugula. Emulsify with olive oil.
This recipe was originally published in "Culinary Encyclopedia by Alain Ducasse" (Éditions Alain Ducasse). See all credits
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