Sea bass and tips on cooking fish

As you can see in a previous post, I posted pictures of my sea bass appetizer.

First and foremost, always remember, the quality of the product makes a big difference in the outcome of the product.  Just like when you cook with wine, you should only use wine that you would drink as well, not just any old crappy box wine, so too when purchasing meat, make sure you are buying a good product only.

With anything that you cook in the sous vide machine, you input the temperature that you want the end result to be at.  Meaning if you are cooking a medium rare steak cook your steak to approx. 130-135 degrees f. 

When it comes to fish I prefer my fish medium rare to medium.  Now that doesn't mean that the fish should be pink inside as in a red piece of meat, in fact the temperature of fish is purely by degrees in heat, not by colour.  So for example a medium rare salmon fillet, will have just lots its rawness colour.  That would mean the entire meat of the fish is now pink not the slight redish orangish that you would see in raw salmon meat.  However the texture of a medium rare fillet of salmon is soft and tender.  The meat is still held together and comes apart perfectly at the seams.

So when I cook fish I cook its to 140 degrees f, and for me that is between medium rare and medium, the colour of the meat has changed, but the texture of the meat of the fish is still very soft and tender.

As with anything you cook sous vide (which means under pressure or vacuum packed), because its so evenly cooked you must take your product out of the bag and sear it to give a texture that people expect.

Now for the sea bass.  Yield 2 portions.
2 - 3 oz pieces of sea bass
3 saffron leaves or 1 pinch of saffron powder ( I prefer Spanish or Iranian)
1 Pinch of Salt and Pepper
1 splash of a semi sweet wine (ie Riesling from Niagara)
1 knob of butter

Vacuum seal and place in 140 degrees f water for 30 minutes.

Take the bag out of the water.  Take the fish out of the bag and reserve the liquid from the bag.  Using a hot pan, melt some butter and noisette it.  Place the sea bass skin side down until it pulls away from the pan (approx 2.5 minutes).  Take the fish out of the pan, then pour in the liquid from the bag, let it boil for 30 seconds then whisk in a small amount of butter to finish the sauce.

Place the fish on top of your garnish, crispy skin side up, and with a spoon, drizzle the saffron sauce around it giving a contrast on the plate of yellow (sauce), white(fish), and brown/black (skin of the fish).

Bon Apetit