Roasted Sea Bass with Wholegrain Mustard Sauce

For our Valentines Dinner, Carolyn Flynn jetted across the country so we could be together. We prepared a Roasted Sea Bass with Wholegrain Mustard Sauce, served with roasted red beets topped with goat cheese. Our desert was strawberries dipped in chocolate.

This recipe is from our favorite cookbook, My Wild Atlantic Kitchen. For the lack of sea bass, we used haddock. Surprisingly, the mustard sauce was very subtle.

Ingredients

Serves 4 Preheat the oven to 400°F

• 4x 8oz sea bass fillets, skin on and descaled

• Olive oil, to fry

• Sea salt and cracked black pepper

• Simple wholegrain mustard cream sauce (see below)

Brush the sea bass fillets with the oil and season. We just used fresh cracked pepper. Heat an ovenproof frying pan over a medium-high heat and place the fish skin side up and sear for 2 minutes. Move the pan to the oven, still with the skin side up and roast for 5-7 minutes or until the skin peels away easily from the fish. I put a small pat of Kerrygold butter on top for flavor and to keep it moist. Cooking time will depend on the thickness of the fillet.

Serve the sea bass skin side down with the simple wholegrain mustard sauce on the side.

Wholegrain Mustard Cream Sauce:

•2 tbsp wholegrain mustard

• 7 oz cream

• 1 tsp honey

• Lemon juice, to taste

• Sea salt and cracked black pepper

In a saucepan, bring the cream to the boil, then reduce to a low heat. Stir the wholegrain mustard into the heated cream reduction sauce. Add the honey and lemon juice to taste. Season to taste.

For the beats, we quartered them, coated them with olive oil, sprinkled on some 18-year-old balsamic vinegar and dusted them with garlic powder. This went into a foil pack and baked at 350° for an hour. Top with goat cheese when serving.

For the strawberry’s, we melted a bag of Lily’s chocolate sauce in a fondue pot, and kept stirring in some sauvignon blanc or other dry white wine until the texture was smooth and creamy. Wash and dry the strawberries, and dip away!

It was a fun and easy meal to make, and a perfectly romantic way to wrap up our Valentine’s Day together.