August bank holiday Monday, I am back home with my family in Sussex. Finally getting to spend some rare quality time with my mum, I wanted to cook her something healthy, wholesome and delicious.

So here is my recipe for pan-fried Sea Bass, with a green mixed veg Risotto (If anyone has got any better name suggestions, I am very much open to ideas). First time cooking Sea Bass. 5,243,345th time making a risotto. Quick, filling and farely cheap, Risotto was such a staple during my Uni years.

Let me know what you think.

Serves: 2

Cooking/Prep time: 30 Mins

Ingredients:

2 Sea Bass Fillets

Butter/Olive Oil to Fry

1/2 a White Onion

1 Glove of Garlic

2 Sticks of Celery – Sliced

4 Large runner Beans – Finely cut

1 Small cup of Garden Peas

2 Spring Onions

A Large handful of Spinach

100 Grams Risotto rice (Roughly a 5th of a bag for 2 people)

1 Pint of Chicken Stock

A large splash of White wine

A big shake of Celery Salt

Grated Parmesan to add to taste

First get all your ingredients together for a nice photo. When you have them all looking fresh and Instagram worthy, give the grubby ones a nice wash.

Next slice them all up however you like, my suggestion would be to cut the Celery and runner beans as finely as possible so they do not take too long to cook.

I have just got a new camera, and by new I mean a camera in general, so the upgrade from my Iphone 5 has resulted in me trying to take Arty close-ups, which in no way help you making this meal. But don’t they look nice? See below for Arty close-ups.

 

Now all your prep is done, time to crack on with the cooking. Melt some butter in a pan, ready to saute the Onions, Garlic and Celery. Add your sauteing ingredients with a nice large sprinkle of Celery Salt. I am a BIG fan of cooked Celery, and find Celery Salt is an absolute gem of an ingredients for bringing out the flavour even more.

 

Once the Onions, Garlic and Celery have softened (3-5 mins later), add the risotto rice, gently toasting it in the pan.
 

Once toasted, start to gradually add your chicken stock, stirring whilst sloshing in the stock bit by bit. The rice will quickly absorb the liquid, reduce the heat on the pan to minimise your chances of sticking/burning your rice to the bottom of the pan. Get your runner beans in the pan to start cooking at this point. The process of adding the liquid should take around 5 minutes.

Whilst your Risotto is bubbling away you can prepare the Sea Bass. sprinkle the skin with salt. Easy. Done.

Now you can add the rest of those luscious greeneries, AKA the peas and the Spinach. These will only take a couple of minutes, just enough time to fry the fish.

Having never cooked Sea bass, I follow James Martin’s advise – Cooking the fillets in a mixture of Butter and Olive oil, which were bubbling away in the pan before I added the fillets Skin down. 3 Minutes later I turned them, they were fully cooked another 3 minutes later, with all the flesh opaque/White.

 

Once the Sea Bass is cooked through and you have stirred in the majority of the grated cheese into the Risotto, you are ready to plate up. I went for a huge great dollop of the risotto, topped with the Sea Bass, fresh Spring onion slices and a sprinkling of extra cropped Spinach and Grated Parmesan.Of course dress however you wish. I went for a black long sleeve top and some funky trousers, the plate looked all right too.

It’s safe to say my mum was very happy and I was pretty proud of myself, it genuinely tasted as fresh and delicious as I had hoped.

Thanks for reading this far, even bigger thanks if this has inspired you to make it.

Stay fabulous.

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