Sea bass filled with the usual parsley, mint, lemon and garlic. This time however I have also added blood orange and fennel fronds. What a lovely choice for Good Friday or any day!
I love trying Maltese recipes (or in this case Maltese inspired) using different types of fish. Sometimes it is sea bream, mackerel or in this case sea bass. It is a great choice for baking and is ideally suited to the strong flavours of blood oranges, fennel, mint, parsley and garlic.
Try and buy whole sea bass if you can. Larger sized fish (mine was 700 grams) have grown large enough in size to develop there true meaty flavour. Your fish monger should also be able to clean the fish for you so you don’t have to worry about doing it at home.
I have mentioned it before but fish was something we had often at home luckily because my dad loved fishing. It was where he escaped when there was an opportunity to have a break from farming. He would pack up his fishing gear the night before and head out early to the beach (sometimes going as far as two hours away) from where we lived. If I was lucky enough I got to go with him now and again. One of my favourite spots was on the rocks near Palm beach. We used to have to go along a narrow foot path which would lead us to this amazing spot for fishing. I used to sit on the edge of the rocks and be able to see all these small fish coming to the surface of the water. They were always after any scraps that my dad may have had from cleaning the fish he caught or from a special mixture he had made which would be used to entice the large fish to him. One of the small fish were puffer fish and I just loved seeing them puff up if we managed to catch one. We always had to put it back but it was good fun even just for a few minutes.
Be experimental with what you fill your fish with. Although traditional ways of flavouring fish are great, there is no reason for you not to create your own inspired versions!
- 1 large sea bass cleaned and gutted
- 1 blood orange sliced thinly
- 1 lemon sliced thinly
- Small bunch of parsley finely chopped
- Handful of fennel fronds finely chopped
- Small bunch of mint finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- Olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Preheat oven to 180oC.
- Mix together the mint, parsley, fennel fronds, garlic and 1 tablespoon of olive oil together.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Inside the fish place a layer or blood orange slices.
- Fill with your herb mixture and then place a layer of lemon slices inside the fish too.
- With any remaining ingredients place on the bottom of a baking tray (leave some blood orange and lemon slices for the top of the fish).
- Place the filled fish on top.
- Place any citrus slices on top of the fish.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- Drizzle with olive oil.
- Place in the oven for 35 minutes.
- Serve with some greens and potatoes (roasted, fries or mashed)