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Crispy-Skin Sea Bass (with lemon beurre blanc)

SeafoodWild fishDate night30 minutes

Black sea bass with skin that crackles, on a pool of silky French butter sauce. It looks like a restaurant plate and is easier than it looks.

My recipe. The skin technique is the same as in the chowder bowl. The beurre blanc is classic French: a wine-and-shallot reduction whisked with cold butter.

At a glance

Make the sauce first
10 minPrep
10 minSauce
6 minFish
2Servings
–kcal / plate
–Protein
–EPA + DHA
–Selenium

What makes it work

  • Skin bone-dry, lightly scored and salted
  • Press the fillet flat for the first 20 seconds
  • Cook about 80% of the way on the skin side
  • Never let the butter sauce boil
method ↓

Good to know

  • Spoon the sauce under the fish, not over it, so the skin stays crisp
  • A split beurre blanc can be saved with a splash of cream
  • Black sea bass is wild-caught and low in mercury
notes ↓

Ingredients (2 servings)

Fish

Side (pick one or both)

Lemon beurre blanc

Method

  1. Prep the fish. Pat the skin very dry, then make 2–3 shallow cuts across it, through the skin only, so it doesn't curl. Salt both sides. Leave it uncovered skin-side up while you make the sauce. The air dries the skin further.
  2. Reduce. In a small saucepan, simmer the shallot, wine and vinegar until only about 2 tablespoons of liquid are left, 5–6 minutes. Stir in the cream.
  3. Mount the butter. Turn the heat to low. Whisk in the cold butter one cube at a time, adding the next only once the last has melted in. The sauce should turn pale, glossy and slightly thick. If it looks greasy or starts to separate, pull it off the heat and whisk in a splash of cream. Add the lemon juice, zest and a pinch of salt. Keep it warm off the heat, near the stove, but not on a burner.
  4. Sides. If you're making smashed potatoes, boil them until tender, flatten them, and crisp them in ghee in the skillet. Sear the asparagus 3–4 minutes. Set both aside.
  5. Sear the fish. Heat the ghee in the skillet over medium-high until it shimmers. Lay the fillets skin-side down, away from you, and press each one flat with a spatula for 20 seconds. Cook 4–5 minutes without moving them, until the flesh is opaque about three-quarters of the way up the sides and the skin releases on its own. Flip for 30–60 seconds, just to finish.
  6. Plate. Spoon a pool of beurre blanc onto each warm plate and set the fish on top, skin up. Add the sides and scatter chives over the sauce. The sauce goes under the fish, never on it. That keeps the skin crisp, and it looks more polished too.

Nutrition per plate

This is calculated from the same USDA data as Build a Day. Change it here:

Side
Sauce

% of the daily target for men (the same targets as Build a Day). ~ = mostly estimated. Each 6 oz raw fillet counts as 5 oz cooked, using USDA's "mixed species" sea bass. Red wine vinegar stands in for white wine vinegar. Half the searing fat is assumed to stay in the pan.

Nutrition notes

A white fish with real omega-3

Black sea bass eats like a mild white fish, but in USDA's data it carries far more EPA and DHA than cod or halibut. One 5 oz fillet comes to about 1,000 mg, double the 500 mg daily target. It's also high in selenium. Black sea bass sold in the US is almost always wild-caught off the Atlantic coast, and it's on the FDA/EPA "Best Choices" low-mercury list. (Strong: USDA composition and FDA/EPA data)

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The sauce is butter

Beurre blanc is basically emulsified butter: 6 tablespoons split two ways, so it's most of the plate's calories. The upside is that butter has very little omega-6, about 2% linoleic acid, so the whole plate stays well inside the Linoleic Acid paper's range while the fish delivers its omega-3. If you want it lighter, use a light spoonful instead of a full pool. The panel shows how much that saves. (Strong: USDA composition data)

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