Sea Bass Pistachio w/ Fennel Salad & Blood Orange Sauce
Ingredients
Blood Orange Sauce
- 1 cup fresh squeezed blood orange juice, (about 3 medium blood oranges)
- pinch of ground saffron
- 1 lime, zested & juiced
- 1 scallion, whites, greens & stems roughly chopped
- salt for seasoning
- 6 tbsp sweet, unsalted butter, cut into 1 tbsp-sized pieces
Sea Bass
- four 6-oz pieces of Chilean sea bass
- 1 cup shelled pistachios
- 1 tsp garlic, chopped
Fennel Salad
- 1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- 12 Kalamata olives, pitted & halved
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
- salt for seasoning
Special Equipment
- food processor
- fish spatula
- medium sauté pan
- fine mesh strainer
How-to
- Preheat oven to 450º
- Bring all sauce ingredients except butter to a boil in small saucepan. Turn off heat and allow to steep 30 minutes
- Grind pistachios with garlic in food processor and transfer to bowl or plate
- Season both sides of fish with salt. Drizzle both sides with olive oil. Press top of fish into ground pistachios. Place crust-side down in a cold, olive-oil coated, medium sauté pan
- Place pan in oven, and cook 3-5 minutes on first side
- While fish is cooking, toss together fennel salad ingredients
- Flip fish delicately with fish spatula and dust top side with more pistachios, return to oven for 3-5 additional minutes
- Strain sauce over fine mesh strainer into small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Allow sauce to reduce by half, about 10 minutes
- Slowly whisk cold butter pieces into sauce over medium heat, taking care not to overheat sauce while whisking in butter to avoid sauce from breaking
- Remove fish from oven. For plating, spoon sauce on bottom of plate, and rest fish on top. Serve fennel salad on side