“Alejandro’s prepared a delightful menu for us, Chilean sea bass I believe”. John Hammond.
I really enjoy making dishes from different movies. It just enhances the movie experience for me. And there are some dishes in movies that do leave a lasting impression on me. This is certainly one of those dishes. I have been wanting to make this Chilean sea bass for years, but honestly, I was kind of intimated by it. It looked really fancy and somewhat complicated. First off, I don’t know how the original dish was supposed to be prepared. Also, having never cooked Chilean Sea Bass before, I didn’t want to mess it up considering it is a very expensive piece of fish. But recently my son has been watching the original Jurassic Park on a loop literally every day. So I started craving it more and more and I finally gave in and decided to make my own version of this dish.
If you are like me and never had Chilean sea bass before, it has a rich, moist, tender flavor profile that melts in your mouth. It has large tender flakes like cod but at the same time tastes hearty and meaty like swordfish. It certainly is one of those fancy meals that’s perfect for fancy occasions because of its delicate flavor and price. If you want a cheaper alternative of this dish, I would suggest replacing Chilean sea bass with halibut or cod.
In this version of the dish, I seared the Chilean sea bass first. One thing to remember is Chilean sea bass takes longer than regular white fish to cook so I had to finish it in the oven. Also, I am not sure what sauce they used in the original dish, but I paired my sea bass with some creamy lemon thyme sauce. For the crunchy topping, I fried some sweet potato strings until they were crispy and served the fish with some grape tomatoes and blanched green beans. I have also tried fried spiralized butternut squash and it works great in this dish as well. So whatever you end up choosing, I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did!!
Servings : 4
Preparation Time : 50 minutes
Ingredients
1 sweet potato or butternut squash, cut into strings or spiralized*
Vegetable oil, for deep frying
2 cups green beans
1 cup grape tomatoes, cut in half
2 tablespoons oil
4 evenly sized Chilean Sea Bass fillets, about 1/4 pound each
Salt and black pepper, to taste
3 small shallots, about 1/2 cup finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter, small diced
Directions
Preheat your oven at 425 F.
Heat some vegetable oil in a deep skillet to 350°F and fry the sweet potato strings for 3-5 minutes until crispy and golden brown.
Remove and place on a paper towel lined plate.
Season them with some salt and set aside.
In a deep pan, bring some water to boil. Add the green beans and cook for 1-2 minutes. Don’t cook them for too long. You want them to be nice and crisp.
Quickly drain them and put them in a bowl with ice and water. This will stop the cooking and set the bright green color.
Preheat an oven proof skillet over medium high heat. Add 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to the pan.
Season both sides of your fish with salt and pepper. Once the oil is heated, add your Chilean sea bass fillets skin side down in the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes to get the skin crispy.
Flip and place in the oven until they reach an internal temperature of 145°F or 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of your fillets.
Check the fish doneness, remove the fish from the pan on a plate and set aside.
In the same pan, over medium heat, add the shallots and sauté for about 1 minute.
Add in garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.
Add the lemon juice and chicken stock and stir to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet.
Bring to a boil. Allow to boil gently, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until the liquid is reduced to half.
Add in thyme, lemon zest, salt, black pepper and heavy cream. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
Remove the pan from heat and add butter to the sauce. Stir to combine.
Drain the green beans and season them with a little salt and black pepper.
On a plate add your lemon sauce first and top with green beans.
Slice your sea bass into strips and add in between green beans.
Add your grape tomatoes halves on the other side of the plate
Top with fried sweet potato strings.
Enjoy!
*Notes
You can use a spiralizer to make spiralized sweet potato strings. I actually bought some frozen sweet potatoes already spiralized. You can buy frozen butternut squash spirals as well!!
View recipe : Click Here
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