Spring has some of the best vegetables and it’s about time I put some of them to use! Anne Burrell has this fantastic recipe for Seared Wild Striped Bass with Sauteed Spring Vegetables using some of bright green veggies available right now and pairs it with a method for cooking seared wild striped bass that gets the skin super crispy without it curling up.
Ingredients:
- Salt
- 1 bunch asparagus, snapped where it wants to naturally break
- 2 cups sugar snap peas, tips and strings removed
- 1 cup shelled fava beans
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup morel mushrooms, cleaned and cut lengthwise in 1/2
- 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
- 4 (6-ounce) wild striped bass fillets, with skin
I used dried morel mushrooms so I added them to boiling water and let them rehydrate, this takes about 20 minutes so do it first. I then used 1/2 cup of this as the stock. If you are using fresh morels, use chicken or vegetable stock. Take the fish out of the fridge before starting on the vegetables.
To shell your fava beans, cut into the pod and pull the seeds out. Simple enough!
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with ice water and salt it well. Add the asparagus to the boiling water and cook until the water comes back to a rolling boil.
Remove and place it immediately in the salted ice water.
When the asparagus has cooled completely, remove it from the water and reserve. Repeat this process with the sugar snap peas and then the fava beans. You can use the same blanching water for all of the veggies, do the fava beans last. (Fava beans have very high iron content and will turn the blanching water black.)
After the beans are blanched and cooled, remove the tough outer skin to reveal the spring green fava bean.
Bring the pan to a medium high heat. When the garlic has become golden brown remove it from the pan and discard it. Add the mushrooms and stock, season generously with salt, and saute for 1 minute.
Add the prepared veggies, season with salt and saute until all the ingredients are coated with oil and hot and almost all the stock has evaporated.
To make the fish, pat the skin dry with a paper towel and season the fish with salt. Heat a large saute pan coated generously with extra virgin olive oil over high heat. Coat the bottom of another slightly smaller saute pan with olive oil. Gently place the fish fillets skin side down in the saute pan and place the other saute pan directly on top of the fish; do this immediately, they curl fast! (The purpose of this is to gently press the skin of the bass onto the bottom of the saute pan to achieve a crispy fish skin. Be sure to oil the bottom of the top saute pan or the fish will stick to it.)
After a 3 minutes remove the top saute pan from the fish, this will allow the steam to escape and the skin to become very crispy.
Cook the fish for another 2 minutes and then flip.
Cook for another 3 minutes. Serve the fish with the vegetables.
The skin really crisps up without shriveling, this method is awesome! The true star of this dish though is the vegetables. Fava beans are well worth the trouble, they have almost a meaty texture to them that is delicious with the asparagus and snap peas.
Seared Wild Striped Bass with Sauteed Spring Vegetables
Recipe Type: Seafood, Weeknight Dinner
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- Salt
- 1 bunch asparagus, snapped where it wants to naturally break
- 2 cups sugar snap peas, tips and strings removed
- 1 cup shelled fava beans
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/2 cup morel mushrooms, cleaned and cut lengthwise in 1/2
- 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
- 4 (6-ounce) wild striped bass fillets, with skin
Instructions
- I used dried morel mushrooms so I added them to boiling water and let them rehydrate, this takes about 20 minutes so do it first. I then used 1/2 cup of this as the stock. If you are using fresh morels, use chicken or vegetable stock. Take the fish out of the fridge before starting on the vegetables.
- To shell your fava beans, cut into the pod and pull the seeds out. Simple enough!
- Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with ice water and salt it well. Add the asparagus to the boiling water and cook until the water comes back to a rolling boil.
- Remove and place it immediately in the salted ice water.
- When the asparagus has cooled completely, remove it from the water and reserve. Repeat this process with the sugar snap peas and then the fava beans. You can use the same blanching water for all of the veggies, do the fava beans last. (Fava beans have very high iron content and will turn the blanching water black.)
- After the beans are blanched and cooled, remove the tough outer skin to reveal the spring green fava bean.
- Add olive oil to a large saute pan. Smash the three garlic cloves and add to the saute pan.
- Bring the pan to a medium high heat. When the garlic has become golden brown remove it from the pan and discard it. Add the mushrooms and stock, season generously with salt, and saute for 1 minute.
- Add the prepared veggies, season with salt and saute until all the ingredients are coated with oil and hot and almost all the stock has evaporated.
- To make the fish, pat the skin dry with a paper towel and season the fish with salt. Heat a large saute pan coated generously with extra virgin olive oil over high heat. Coat the bottom of another slightly smaller saute pan with olive oil. Gently place the fish fillets skin side down in the saute pan and place the other saute pan directly on top of the fish; do this immediately, they curl fast! (The purpose of this is to gently press the skin of the bass onto the bottom of the saute pan to achieve a crispy fish skin. Be sure to oil the bottom of the top saute pan or the fish will stick to it.)
- After a 3 minutes remove the top saute pan from the fish, this will allow the steam to escape and the skin to become very crispy.
- Cook the fish for another 2 minutes and then flip.
- Cook for another 3 minutes. Serve the fish with the vegetables.
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What a mouth watering spring dish. Looks amazing!
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Thanks !! I love dishes that can showcase seasonal veggies!