Ingredients
- 2 Large Chilean Sea Bass filets
- 1/2 Cup Cashews (unsalted), Crushed into pieces
- 2 Pinches Salt and Pepper (one each side, top and bottom)
- 1 Cup Flour
- 2 Medium Eggs, Whisked
- 1/2 Stick Butter
- 2 TBS Citrus Beurre Blanc Sauce for garnish
- 4 Leaves Basil, sliced chiffonade style for garnish
- 2 Pinches Orange zest for garnish
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a heavy bottomed, oven safe skillet, melt butter over medium heat
- Set up 3 dredging stations, bowl of flour, eggs and the crushed cashew pieces.
- Dry the Sea Bass steaks with a paper towel.
- Dredge the fish in the flour, coating completely
- Dip the coated fish in the egg, coating completely
- Press the fish in the cashew pieces, coating all sides.
- move the encrusted fish to the frying skillet. Fry top and bottom for 2 minutes each until lightly golden brown and delicious...
- Move the skillet to the oven and bake at 400 degrees until the internal temperature reaches 130 degrees.
- Move to a cutting board and allow the fish to rest. temperature will continue to rise while resting to about 140 degrees. Rest for at least 10 minutes for the temperature to even out throughout the entire piece of fish.
- Serve HOT with garnishes and ENJOY!
PERFECT... Butter soft and flakey. With a beautiful piece of fish like this, please please please use an instant read remote temperature probe. The butter soft flakiness is only achieved with careful temperature monitoring. Overcook the fish and any fish will become chewy and unpleasant. Treat quality ingredients with the respect they deserve!
The fish had a wonderful nutty accent taste thanks to the cashews. Frying in butter helped the soft texture of the fish and certainly added that rich butter flavor.
I served this with a side of Sweet Potato ravioli. I wanted to use a sauce for the pasta that would pair with the fish. A Citrus Beurre Blanc Sauce is simply butter and wine heated and whisked to a creamy rich thickened sauce, with hints of citrus that accent without overpowering...
If you want to get beyond a tomato sauce for a pasta (and add a rich sauce that competes well with a fish dish), give this classic wonderful sauce a try...
Here's what I did...
Ingredients
- 1 Medium Shallot, finely minced
- 1 TBS Butter for sauteing
- 1/4 Cup White Wine
- Juice and zest of 1 Orange
- Juice and Zest of 1 Lime
- 1 Stick Butter
- In a small heavy bottomed skillet, over medium heat, melt 1 TBS of Butter
- Add the minced shallot and saute for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the wine and both juices and allow to simmer for 10 minutes until the sauce reduces to a syrup
- Add the butter. Once the butter has melted, remove from the heat and whisk fo several minutes until the sauce thickens and has completely emulsified.
- Serve warm over pasta or fish and ENJOY!.
So, bottom line this... Was this a restaurant quality piece of fish worth the cost once I was finished... YES. the combination of proper technique, temperature control and perfect Sea Bass to start made this about as good as it gets for me. As I said, this was a freebie. But here's the actual prices...
6 (8 ounce) Sea Bass Fillets each 3rd party certified sells for $94... Below the cost of buying local (and locally I can not verify that they are legally caught). I did a little checking and was not able to fins any CERTIFIED Legally Caught Sea Bass. What was available cost $25 a pound and was available in only 4 ounce filets (a sure sign that this was in fact NOT Sea bass, but was probably a close substitute... but that's a long discussion for a different post... I digress)...
