Simply Simon’s Sumptuous Sea Bass

‘Who’s Simon?’ you may ask. Simon was an intern working in the HelloFresh kitchens when he came up with this fish recipe which was duly named after him. Simply Simon’s Sumptuous Sea Bass from Hellofresh is indeed sumptuous and simple, even though you’ll need to be cooking three separate ingredients at once.

I’m a bit nervous about trying recipes when no nutritional information is listed, but I estimate that this is around 500 calories all in, and it’s only that high because you are required to use 3 separate tablespoons of olive oil. As easy as HelloFresh’s recipe kits and meal plans are to throw together, I do find the recipes in their book to be quite carb heavy. However this dish tasted outstanding – the flavours emanating from the garlic, ginger, vine tomatoes, fish sauce and lime juice are superb, complemented brilliantly by the crispy new potatoes and pan-fried, buttery sea bass. Yum, yum, yum.

This is an excellent ‘date night’ option if you’re planning on cooking something nice for a loved one as it can be rustled up in half an hour. If sea bass is your thing, I’d also whole-heartedly recommend baked sea bass with peppers and pine nuts and sea bass and miso risotto.

Recipe: Simply Simon’s Sumptuous Sea Bass

Calories: Not listed in the book, but approx 510 per serving

Serves: 2

Book: HelloFresh Recipes that Work: More than 100 Step-by-Step Recipes & Techniques

Prep time: Approx 20 mins

Cooking time: Approx 25 mins

Ingredients:

• 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• 1 onion (1/2 cm dice)
• 1 tsp fresh ginger (peeled and finely chopped)
• 350g new potatoes (halved)
• Olive oil
• 2 vine tomatoes (peeled and cut into 1/2cm dice)
• 3 tbsp fresh coriander (roughly chopped)
• 2 sea bass fillets (about 100g each)
• 2 tsp butter
• ½ lime
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• Flaked sea salt
• Ground black pepper

Cost per portion: Approx £2.89

Method:

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees C / Gas Mark 7. Put a medium pan of water over a high heat and bring to the boil. Prep the garlic, onion and ginger. Cut the potatoes in half (no need to peel).

Toss the potatoes in 1 tbsp olive oil, ½ tsp salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Lay them flat on a baking tray and roast on the top shelf for around 25 mins, or until a little crispy at the edges.

Slice just through the skin of each tomato from the top to the bottom. Repeat three more times around each tomato so that the skin is sliced into four segments. Place the tomatoes in boiling water for 60 seconds.

Run the tomatoes under cold water to cool them down, then peel off their skin (the segmenting makes this easier). Chop the tomatoes into ½ cm dice.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the garlic and onion and cook for 5 mins, until soft. Add the tomatoes, turn the heat to low and bubble away for 15 mins. Add 1 tbsp water now and again if the ingredient start to dry out. Meanwhile, prep the coriander.

Heat 1 tbsp olive in another frying pan over a medium-high heat. Sprinkle a bit of salt (less than ¼ tsp) onto both sides of the sea bass and place in the pan skin-side down. Cook for 2 minutes until the skin has crisped up then gently turn over. Add the butter and a squeeze of lime to the pan then remove the fish from the heat. The fish will carry on cooking off the heat.

Add the ginger and tbsp chopped coriander to the tomatoes, then add the fish sauce bit by bit and taste as you go along as it’s quite strong. Serve the fish on a bed of crispy potatoes and sauce with the remaining chopped coriander sprinkled over.