Pan Roasted Black Sea Bass

Pardon the delay in getting a new post up. Since Clam Chowder went live, I finished up work for the summer and started my senior year of college. Since returning to school my diet has consisted of what I've managed to piece together without doing the big official shop. I'm lucky to have an apartment with a kitchen, but it's completely new so I've had to buy all new staples, and then the fresh ingredients. My mom sent me off with a cooler of goodies from her garden, but a college student has a hard time cooking up eight beets, and then convincing her roommates that they do not taste like dirt. I finally bought some goat cheese so I'll make a nice beet and goat cheese salad that I'll probably eat by myself for the next two weeks (unless I find some daring friends).

Anyways! Black sea bass. While on Martha's Vineyard I went fishing one morning with my uncle on his Regulator. My dad came along, as well as their other brother Philip. I earned the name "high hook" that trip, and we took home some beautiful, big black sea bass. I even caught one while trolling for blue fish, a shock since they are bottom fish. I'd love to pretend that I'm some fish expert, but here's a little information that I looked up on Wikipedia. The black sea bass is a type of grouper that exists from the coast of Maine to northern Florida, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. They are very desirable fish and had problems with over fishing in the past. Quotas helped rebuild the mid-Atlantic populations back to the status of "rebuilt", while the south Atlantic populations are still labeled "overfished". We caught them on the bottom with bait, which was fun, although not as exciting has bringing in a blue fish.

At the end of the trip, we threw them in our cooler and brought them back to Chappy. I gutted them on the beach with my dad, much to the excitement of my dog and the sea gulls (and a few crabs I'm sure). All we did was gill, scale, and gut them. The head stayed on. As a scientist, it's always fun to do a little dissecting as well. One fish was happily feeding on crabs when we interrupted.

All the delicate, mild tasting fish needs is some salt and pepper and olive oil. Ideally one would put the fish in a cast iron pan, but this was a rental so we worked with what we had. We cooked two in a hot pan for a few minutes, flipped them, and then stuck the pan in a hot oven for maybe 12 minutes. Since our pan was not oven proof we transferred them into a metal pan.

The end result is perfect. The skin is crispy, the meat is white and tender. We had more than enough fish for the four of us, but managed to eat all of it. Of course, we had some help from a very adorable and very effective beggar - Violet. Although I did not eat them, the cheeks were particularly amazing I heard. I had a nice piece that had lost some skin so that the meat became nice and crispy too. I'm not a fan of fish skin, but some eat it.

Much to the dismay of my parents, I really did not like fish growing up. I ate clams and lobster and other seafood, but fish didn't do it for me. I still don't love all fish, but I have certainly been converted- especially when it's cooked like this. This is my favorite way to prepare a fish, and there's no better fish than the beautiful black sea bass.