Sea bass is a delightfully subtle fish that works well with a variety of flavors. It’s the perfect fish if you’re like us and don’t really love a super fishy taste or smell! We love this recipe which calls for brushing the sea bass with sesame-chili oil before coating it with toasted slivered almonds. You can grill or bake it, but the kicker is to serve it with Thai Sweet Chili Sauce blended with toasted sesame oil and a dash of soy sauce! Serve it with your favorite rice and this is a quick and easy dish for you to make tonight!
We all know that we should eat more fish, but sometimes it’s hard to find fish that doesn’t taste well, like fish! While we prefer the more subtle fish, we do also enjoy salmon and swordfish from time to time, but one of our favorites is Chilean sea bass.
This time, I went to my local fishmonger to pick up some Chilean Sea Bass, and all they had on hand was Black Sea Bass, which is a fish I had not heard of before. Where Chilean Sea Bass is inevitably flash-frozen right on the boat, the Black Sea Bass was fresh. Bonus points! They told us it tasted like grouper, which is also a fairly subtle fish, and it looked kind of like Chilean Sea Bass, so we gave it a whirl.
It worked out just great for this recipe, which is one I have always used with Chilean Sea Bass, so now we all have a few more options when fish shopping!
Anyway, you can either bake the fish in the oven, or grill it on the barbecue. Either way, you will want to tent it with foil after the first few minutes of baking to ensure that the fish is cooked all the way through, but not dried out. The cooking time will vary with the thickness of the filets.
Almond Crusted Sea Bass with Thai Sweet Chili, Soy & Sesame Sauce
Ingredients
Sea Bass Fish Filets
- 2 lbs. Chilean sea bass or black sea bass fillets
- 2 tablespoons sesame-chili oil Dynatsty packages this, but if you cannot find it, make your own by adding red chili pepper flakes to toasted sesame oil.
- 1 1/2 cups slivered almonds, toasted and chopped Trader Joes sells pre-toasted slivered almonds, which are perfect for this dish, otherwise, toast slivered almonds in a 350°F oven for about 5 minutes, or dry toast them in a frying pan on teh stove top.
Thai Sweet Chili, Soy & Sesame Sauce
- 1 cup Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
- 2 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
Garnishes
- 2 tbsp. Thai basil
- 1/2 cucumber, sliced
- 6 radishes, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp. red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, or the barbecue to medium heat.
- Line a metal or aluminum baking dish with foil, allowing some extra foil for tenting the fish after the initial cooking.
- Spray the foil with cooking spray and lay the fish fillets on the foil, skin side down – if there is skin on the fish. (Most often Chilean sea bass has no skin, but the black sea bass does.)
- Brush the tops and sides of the fillets with sesame-chili oil.
- Pat the chopped almonds on top of the oil to completely cover the tops and sides of the fish.
- Barbecue or Bake???
- If you're cooking the fish on the grill, cook uncovered for about 3-4 minutes over medium heat, and then tent the fish with the foil and continue to cook for another 6 minutes or so, until the fish is cooked all the way through. This will vary depending upon the thickness of the fillets.
- If you are baking the fish in the oven, tent the prepared fish with foil and seal the edges. Bake for 18-22 minutes at 350°F, or until the fish is cooked through. Again, the bake time will depend largely on the thickness of the fillets. Open the foil for the last few minutes to allow the almnonds to brown adn get a ittel nore crunchy.
- To serve, remove the fish from the foil with a spatula, leaving the skin on the foil, and lay the fillets on each plate.
- Spoon the Thai Sweet Chili, Soy & Sesame dipping sauce over each fillet and serve any extra sauce in ramekins on the side.
- Garnish with radishes, cucumber, Thai basil and chili pepper flakes.
- Serve with your favorite rice.
