Sea Bass with Fennel and Pink Fir Apples

So the relaxing Easter weekend is over and we have to last a whole two weeks before our next public holiday!
On Saturday we joined the thronging hordes of the middle classes at Borough Market looking for something great for dinner.

Borough Market is London's biggest (and most expensive) public produce market with all sorts of traders - with fishmongers, butchers, bakers, greengrocers and dozens of specialist and artisan producers.

Our best buys were a beautiful wild sea bass and some hard-to-find pink fir apple potatoes - all too often, bass are caught too young - here we found some more mature fish.  To my mind, a single bass should be big enough to feed two - any smaller than that and it shouldn't be for sale.  Ours was around 1kg in weight.

The pink fir apple is a strange potato - it is long and nobbly looking more like a jerusalem artichoke than a spud, only longer and... pink.  It is an excellent salad potato.
We decided to sauté them and they were utterly delicious.

We also bought a nice big frissé lettuce, a lovely bunch of English radishes and a large bulb of fennel.  All the makings of a great evening meal.

Of course, no trip to Borough Market is complete without realising that you've spent a fortune 'treating yourself' - and a trip to Spanish importers Brindisa is mandatory (so a tin of peppers, some slicing chorizo and some cooking chorizo later and we're £20 worse off...).  We also found a really interesting 30 year old Pedro Ximinez from Cordoba that came in a half-bottle.  That is tucked nicely in the wine cellar awaiting a hot evening and some excellent vanilla ice cream... I'll let you know when the occasion happens!

Griddled Sea Bass with Fennel and Sautéd Pink Fir Apple Potatoes
(serves 2)
1 good sized, cleaned (ie gutted and scaled) sea bass taken off the fish in two lovely neat fillets (you could get the fishmonger to do it or you could struggle manfully for 20 minutes doing it yourself)
For the stock: (or you could use some stock from a previous day's experimenting that you remembered to freeze...)
1 onion peeled and chopped in 4
1 carrot chopped in 4
1 stick celery chopped in 4
1 tsp black peppercorns lightly cracked (rather than crushed)
Trimmings from fennel (see below)
1 bay leaf
1 glass white wine (optional)

For the fennel:
1/2 large or 1 small bulb fennel
1oz butter
3tbsp Ricard/Pernod

For the potatoes:
As many pink fir apples as you think you can eat/afford
1tbsp olive oil
1/2 oz butter
1tsp chopped rosemary
Maldon salt

For the fish:
Olive oil for brushing, salt & pepper.
Knob of butter.

If you haven't already, remove the fillets from the fish.  Rinse the bones and trimmings (sans gills) in a large pan and cover with cold water in a large pan.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes.  Strain the stock into a clean pan, skimming off any scum, add the vegetables (including the outer layers of the fennel) and the wine (if using) and bring to the boil.  Simmer for a further 20 minutes or so.  Strain.  Return to the pan and set on a medium heat to reduce down.

Scrub the potatoes and add - whole - to a pan of boiling water.  Boil for 15 minutes or so until just tender.  Don't overboil these babies, as they are likely to have cost you a small fortune.

Slice the fennel as thinly as you can and add to a pan with the butter over a medium heat.  After 5 minutes or so, it should have softened, add the Ricard/Pernod.  And at this stage, pour a large one for yourself with iced water.  Once the alcohol has burnt off the fennel, add a ladle full of the fish stock.

Drain the potatoes well.

Put a griddle pan on a high heat and let it get hot.  Meanwhile, brush the skin side of the fish with olive oil and season.  Get a frying pan on with the butter and oil over a medium-high heat for the potatoes.

Put another ladle full of stock into a small pan to reduce quickly - you're done with the other stock now, and that will freeze down for another day.  Which is just as well, as your kitchen is beginning to look like a bomb site and you've run out of space on the hob.

Have another Ricard.

Cut the potatoes in half lengthways and get them cut-side down into the frying pan.

Put the fish skin-side down into the griddle pan.  Don't move the fish at all once it's there - the reason it sticks is usually because you've moved it too early.

The fish should be nearly cooked before you turn it - you can tell from the colour whether it's close.
Brush the surface of the bass with oil and season.  Flip it over and take the pan off the heat - there will enough residual heat to cook it through.

Add the knob of butter to the small pan of stock and whisk in.  You should really be using clarified butter here, but life's too short sometimes.

Plate-up:  Fennel overlayed by the beautiful fish, with it's silver and slightly charred skin uppermost, potatoes on the side.  Sprinkle the spuds with maldon salt and rosemary.  Your little pan of stock should now be just a few spoonfuls of sauce - pour over the fish.  If you remembered to save the frondy bits from the fennel, use them to decorate the fish. 
To accompany:  A simple salad of frissé and radishes.  And lots of white wine - after all that, you deserve an extra glass.

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