Sea bream with fennel salad and orange dressing

Ingredients
4 sea bream fillets (about 160g each), skin on
Sea salt and black pepper
100ml olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
3 oranges (blood oranges when in season)
1 fennel bulb, trimmed, leafy tops reserved (or use dill sprigs if the fennel is ready trimmed)
½ red onion
3 tbsp white wine vinegar, plus an extra splash
75g stoned marinated black olives, quartered lengthways
3 tbsp vegetable oil
Method
  1. Rinse the fish fillets, pat dry and remove small bones with tweezers. Score four or five times on the skin side of each one. Season and drizzle with olive oil. Cover and refrigerate.
  2. Slice off the peel and pith of one orange and cut between the membranes to release the segments. Put the segments into a small boilable plastic bag and seal. Squeeze the juice from the pithy membrane into a pan.
  3. Grate the zest from the other two oranges into a bowl. Squeeze the juice and add to the pan. Reduce by two-thirds. Pour over the zest, cool and chill.
  4. Chop a few of the fennel tops (or dill), saving the rest for garnish. Slice the fennel bulb and onion finely into ribbons, using a mandolin if possible. Immediately plunge into a bowl of iced water. Leave for 10 minutes until crisp.
  5. For the sauce, immerse the bag of orange segments in a pan of boiling water to the count of ten. Place the bag on a worktop and gently press apart the segments with your fingers. Add them to the reduced juice and zest with the wine vinegar, 100ml olive oil and half the chopped fennel tops (or dill). Mix gently.
  6. Drain the fennel and onion slices, pat dry and place in a bowl. Set aside 12 olive pieces for garnish. Add the rest of the olives to the bowl with the remaining chopped fennel tops (or dill), a generous drizzle of olive oil, a splash of wine vinegar and a generous pinch of salt. Toss together.
  7. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Pan-fry the fish fillets, skin side down first, for 1–2 minutes on each side until the edges are golden. Remove to a warm plate and season with salt.
  8. Drizzle orange sauce around each warm plate and place a bream fillet, skin side up, in the centre. Drizzle a little sauce over the fish. Pile the fennel salad on top and finish with the feathery fennel or dill. Scatter the reserved olive pieces around the plate and serve, with the extra sauce on the side.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/recipes/article7068474.ece

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