I have spent the past two Saturday’s straight CHILLIN’ on the couch. But was able to make some pretty lovely meals.
This was my first time cooking with Chilean sea bass, it’s a more expensive fish due to the regionality of it.
It’s this tender, mild, white fish that cooks up super nicely.
It was a little tough to find and a little bit on the pricey side, but it was well worth it.
I paired it with blistered sweet cherry tomatoes + green beans + lemon butter orzo!
Ingredients: (I’ve doubled the recipe I made so you can serve it for two.)
2 Chilean Sea Bass Filets – about 12 ounces
Cherry tomatoes (one container)
Fresh green beans, trimmed. About 3/4 lb but you can eyeball this
Fresh minced garlic, 3 cloves or so
1 lemon, cut in half.
3 tablespoons of fresh parsley, minced
1 tablespoon of butter (can sub olive oil)
Red pepper flakes
1 cup Orzo Pasta.
Sea salt, fresh ground pepper
Drizzle of Olive oil
Method: Preheat the oven to 375. Start boiling water, be sure to salt your water! On a cookie sheet/roasting pan, spread out tomatoes and green beans. We are going to season with salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Pop in the oven for 12 minutes.
While veggies are cooking – we are going to get a nice sear on the fish. You’re going to want to make sure there’s little to no moisture on the sea bass, pat dry with a paper towel. Season generously with salt and pepper. Heat up a cast iron skillet (or nonstick if you don’t have) with a touch of olive oil. Place the sea bass in a smoking hot pan (medium-high heat) and let it cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side until it starts to get crispy on all 4 sides. Once you’ve seared it on all 4 sides, we are going to add it to the pan of tomatoes and green beans once the timer is done. Toss the veggies, add the fish to the cookie sheet pan and cook for an additional 10 minutes in the oven.
While everything is in the oven, you should start to cook the orzo pasta – about five minutes. While the orzo is cooking, you’re going to deglaze the pan we used for the sea bass. Toss in a little olive oil, the butter and the minced garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes until the garlic is fragrant. Squeeze 1/2 of the lemon in the pan with the garlic and stir up all those little brown bits from the fish. Reserve the other half of the lemon for when the fish comes out of the oven and squeeze overtop. Once the orzo is done, reserve a little of that pasta water. Toss in the orzo with the garlic lemon sauce. Add fresh parsley (can reserve some for a garnish) and season with the salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to your desire. Over medium-low heat, stir in a few tablespoons of that salty pasta water. It will add wonderful flavor and really bind the sauce together.
If you’ve timed everything out just so, the orzo, sea bass and veggies should be done at about the same time.
Plate the orzo, top with the cherry tomatoes, green beans and the fish. Give a nice squeeze of lemon over the sea bass and a little drizzle of those pan juices from the tomatoes.
Simple and delicious.
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