Sea bass in a vanilla butter sauce

Sea bass in a vanilla butter sauce

(Favourite of S)

• Preparation time: 1 hour (for butter)
• Cooking time: 2 minutes, 30 seconds
• Ready time: 1 hour, 3 minutes
• Servings: 4

Sea bass fillets

Groundnut (peanut) or grapeseed oil

4 Mediterranean sea bass fillets, skin on

Salt

Vanilla butter

3 vanilla pods

125 g (½ cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Method

To make vanilla butter, halve the vanilla pods lengthways and, using a teaspoon, scrape out the seeds.

Mix the butter with the vanilla seeds, using a hand blender.

Roll into a log and wrap in parchment paper or place in a bowl. Keep in the fridge until required (for up to a week), or freeze for a month.

To make the fish, cover the bottom of a frying pan with a thin layer of oil, and heat over a high heat until extremely hot.

Season both sides of fish with salt and place skin-side down in the hot pan to crisp for 90 seconds. Place a lightweight object such as a ramekin on top of the fish to keep it from curling as it cooks. Flip the fish over for a further 60 seconds and remove the fillets from the pan straight onto the serving plates.

Place 10 g (1 tbsp) of vanilla butter on top of each fillet. As the butter melts, spoon it over the fillets to coat.