Lemon & Chilli Sea Bass Fillets

Last Saturday, Sunny Suffolk became true to its name, when that golden ball of heat graced us beautifully with its presence for the entire day. With summer fading fast into the distance, there was naturally no alternative but to seize the sunshine while it was here and get the BBQ out.

We’d been lucky enough to pick up a bargain buy at Sainsbury’s that week, when we scooped up 3 sea bass fillets at about a third of the price it usually is. Deciding to make that the base for our meal, we whipped it out of the freezer, and with a quick scan of other ingredients available, we set our alfresco menu for the evening:

Lemon & Chilli Fillet of Sea Bass
With Moroccan Spiced Couscous, Pine Nuts & Char grilled Pepper
Served with tomato salad & a glass of white wine
Prepared by all...

It was a fantastic meal, and I can safely say we all managed to blow our own minds with our food magic. It looked a picture, and I now realise why so many bloggers become addicted to carrying their camera everywhere. Alas – I have no picture of this wonderful dish or of the social alfresco cooking that took place, so please indulge in my descriptions and allow your imagination to create the picture for you.

Ingredients (serves 3)
3 Sea Bass Fillets
1 Lemon
2 pinches of chilli flakes
A dinner plate finely covered with plain flour
Around 150g of couscous
However many pine nuts you fancy
1 healthy tea spoon of “rass el hanout” by “nomads Moroccan spices” (We bought ours at Butterworths in Bury St Edmunds, but on-line they can be found at http://nomades.co.uk/spice_blends.html) If you don’t have this spice mix use one of your favourites – or make one up!
1 orange pepper
Loads of home grown perfectly ripe tomatoes
4 small home grown spring onions
Half a small red chilli
Some cucumber
1 hand full of leaves (rocket, watercress, baby beetroot)
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
3 people!


Indoor Preparation

1. Boil the kettle, pour the couscous into a bowl, stir the teaspoon of spice into the dry couscous.

2. Pour boiling water over the couscous, until there is getting on for an inch of water above the couscous, then cover with foil

3. Pour the pine nuts into a frying pan (no oil). Heat the pan, shaking it every now and again to keep the nuts moving. Continue until nuts a toasted brown. Puts the nuts to one side and gather the remaining ingredients together

4. Take all the ingredients outside (including the covered couscous). Also take a knife and a chopping board.



Alfresco & Social Cooking

1. By the time you have everything outside, the couscous should be cooked (all of the water should be absorbed). Uncover the couscous, and stir it with a fork making it light and fluffy (woops forgot to bring a fork out - nip back in to get it). Add the pine nuts, a squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of olive oil, plus some salt and pepper – and stir

2. Pour the 2 guests a glass of wine, sit & chat, and get the chopping board out onto your lap. Chop the pepper into 4 pieces and ask one of the others to plop them onto the BBQ (the pepper then becomes their responsibility)

3. Ask the other guest to rub a little olive oil onto the skin side of the sea bass, and then finely coat the skin in plain flour. Then they need to squeeze lemon all over the flesh side of the bass, then sprinkle chilli flakes

4. While the others are taking care of their duties, you start chopping and deseeding the tomatoes, chop some spring onions, chilli and garlic, and some cucumber if you like. Chuck it all in a bowl with some salad leaves. Drizzle over some olive oil – a splash of balsamic vinegar, some salt & pepper – tomato salad – DONE!

6. Once the peppers are soft and partly cooked – have them passed to your chopping board – chop them up – throw them into the couscous – stir – Couscous DONE!

7. All that’s left now is for the sea bass to be BBQ. Have the most BBQ confident guest place them on the BBQ skin side down. They should cook completely through the entire fish without turning, and the skin should be nice and crispy. Sea bass – DONE!