Simple Pan Roasted Sea Bass with Coconut Curry

I absolutely love sea bass for it's clean flavor and delicate texture, but it's so clean I've always felt it needs something more than just the salt and pepper treatment recommended to us by our local fishmonger.  This is my first attempt at a curry and I am extremely pleased with the results.   The sauce has a very light curry flavor and would work great with any white meat if you don't care for fish. 

Pan Roasted Sea Bass with Coconut Curry

Sea Bass Ingredients:

4 filets of sea bass

3 tablespoons canola oil

salt

pepper

Curry Ingredients:

½ tablespoons canola oil

½ large onion thinly sliced

½ red pepper thinly sliced

1 3.2 oz package shitake mushrooms sliced

1 13.5 fl oz can light coconut milk

3 stems fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 dash turmeric

1 pinch dried ginger

salt to taste

cayenne pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Sauté onions and red pepper in ½ tablespoon of the canola oil over medium heat until onion and pepper begin to soften.  Add shitake mushrooms, curry powder, turmeric and ginger.  Stir over medium heat approximately one minute to distribute spices.  Add coconut milk and cilantro and continue cooking over medium heat whisking occasionally until slightly reduced (This should take approximately 15 minutes). 

In a separate large sauté or fry pan, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of canola oil until it’s so hot it sizzles when you sprinkle a drop of water in the pan. 

Season the fillets with sea salt and pepper and add to the hot pan skin side down for approximately 5 minutes until the skin is nice and crispy.  Flip over for 30 seconds.  If you have an ovenproof pan transfer the pan to the 450° oven and roast 3-4 minutes or until fish is opaque and cooked through.  If your pan is not oven proof then transfer fish to a baking sheet coated in nonstick spray before cooking in the oven.  (Note: if you do transfer to a baking sheet it will take slightly longer to cook so you’ll probably have to up your baking time to closer to 6 minutes.)
Serve sea bass immediately with curry sauce and a side of steamed fresh green beans. 

Simple Seafood Pot Pie

Inspired by a recent episode of Iron Chef America I decided to try a seafood makeover of the Hungry Girl chicken pot pie recipe using some frozen Trader Joe's lagostino tails and shrimp I had in my freezer.  Lagostino are really just big crawfish so crawfish tails would be an awesome substitution if your local grocery sells crawfish tail meat.  This recipe should work with any combination of seafood or firm fish so feel free to mix things up according to your preferences or even by what's on sale at the grocery.  
 

Simple Seafood Potpie

1 cup finely diced sweet onion

1 large clove garlic minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup frozen cooked shrimp defrosted

1 cup frozen cooked lagostino tails defrosted

1 Tablespoon Old Bay seasoning

1 10 ¾ oz can 98% Fat Free Cream of Mushroom Soup

3 cups frozen mixed vegetables cooked according to package directions

4 reduced-fat crescent rolls

Cook onion and garlic in 1 tablespoon olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat until transparent. Add seafood and Old Bay seasoning to onions and garlic and mix over medium heat for 1-2 minutes until seafood is warm.

In a large bowl fold the seafood mixture and the cooked vegetables into the cream of mushroom soup.  Transfer the mixture to a pie pan sprayed with non-stick spray and smooth mixture so it is flat on top.

Bake in a 350 degree oven approximately 20 minutes or until the edges are bubbling

Separate the crescent roll triangles and place on a rolling sheet or clean counter sprayed with non-stick spray so they are in a square pattern slightly overlapping.   Roll until thin and large enough to cover the pie pan.

Remove pie pan from oven after bubbling and cover with the rolled crescent rolls.  Trim edges of rolls with a sharp knife so the dough is no longer hanging over the edges of the pie pan. 

Place the pie back in the oven and cook 10-15 minutes until the crust is golden brown.   (I usually make the remaining 4 crescent rolls into crescent rolls and bake them on a pan below the potpie at this time.  They’ll be ready at the same time as the pot pie.)

Let sit at room temperature 5 minutes then enjoy.

- Makes 4 servings