Cooking Sea Bass

[SaladFingers]

I have friends coming round for a three course dinner. The starter and dessert courses can be made in advance so that I don't have to worry about cooking them last minute. I hate having people round and running about the kitchen while they're here.

But I'd really like to cook them a simple pan-fried sea bass fillet for the main course. I've only ever made sea bass for myself; 3 minutes skin-side down, turn over 2 minutes the other - done! There's 8 of us though and I'm a bit daunted about the idea of cooking 8 fillets between starter and main.

I will do this if needs be, but is it possible to pan fry them as normal and keep them in a warm oven for 10-15 minutes while we have starter? I really don't want them drying out or spoiling.

Edited March 24, 2010 by SaladFingers (log)

[Shalmanese]

Do them a la minute, 2 pans with 4 fillets each. Seriously, don't worry about timing, 5 minutes of cooking time is nothing and you want about that much time to get plates cleared and glasses refilled etc. Also, plates shouldn't be cleared until the last eater has finished eating so you can get a head start on the next course and wait for the lingerers to finally finish pushing the food around their plate.

[slkinsey]

Why don't you consider cooking it as a whole fish? You could, for example, do it in a salt crust. This makes for a nice presentation at the table, then you could take it back to the kitchen to break the crust and serve the fillets. The advantage, in addition to being delicious, is that it takes a lot longer to cook than pan-frying fillets, and it also gives you some wiggle room on the timing.

[Blether]

Personally, I wouldn't fry and hold for that long. Lacking pan / stove real estate, Why not just cook the fish in the oven for the 10-15 minutes (choose your temperature) ? There's lots of lovely accompaniments you can put in a sealed paper parcel with each fillet (makes a nice presentation, too, still sealed).

[kayb]

I had an absolutely marvelous sea bass filet at Cafe Pacific in Highland Park, Dallas, last fall....they called it "three onion" sea bass, and it was roasted in a marvelously crispy panko breading that had grated Vidalia and red onions in it, with scallions chopped and scattered over. They served it over roasted corn risotto with ancho chile cream sauce, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven...