Kat's Sea Bass With Potato Crust
2 small Idaho potatoes
2 pounds sea bass, skin and bones removed, divided into serving pieces
Sea salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup clarified butter (divided) (see note)
6 ounces dry white wine
2 ounces dry vermouth
1 ounce chopped shallots
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 napa cabbage, shredded about 1/2-inch thick
1 ounce American Sturgeon caviar (optional)
2 tablespoons fresh chopped chives
Peel and wash potatoes. Slice very thin from end to end to form round pieces.
Season fish generously with salt and pepper and lay potato slices on skin side
of fish overlapping them to look like big fish scales. Brush potato layer with
melted clarified butter and lightly season potatoes. Cover and refrigerate about
30 minutes to 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bring wine, vermouth and shallots to boil in small
saucepan. Boil until reduced to about 1 ounce and add cream. Boil mixture until
lightly thickened. Remove from heat and whisk in butter pieces, a few at a time,
adding more as they melt.
Apply only enough heat to completely incorporate all butter. Season, set aside
and keep warm. (When using caviar, use salt sparingly as caviar will add its
brininess to sauce.)
Place remaining clarified butter in a sauté pan that will hold 4 pieces of
fish. Heat butter over high heat. Remove fish fillets from refrigerator and
place them in hot butter, potato side down. Cook until potatoes are golden
brown. Turn fillets over and transfer them to a sheet pan. Finish fillets in
oven; about 5 minutes depending on thickness of fillets.
Steam cabbage in a large saucepan with about 2 ounces of water.
Season and divide between plates. Stir caviar (optional) into butter sauce.
Place fish in center of cabbage. Divide sauce among plates and drizzle it around
fish and into cabbage. Dress with chives.
Note: To clarify butter, melt butter over low heat in heavy saucepan without
stirring. When the butter is completely melted, you will see a clear oily layer
atop a milky later.
Slowly pour the clear liquid into a dish, leaving the milky layer in the
saucepan. Discard the milky liquid. The clear liquid is the clarified butter.
Not all people are called to be hermits, but all people need
enough silence and solitude in their lives to enable the deep inner voice of
their own true self to be heard at least occasionally.
- Thomas Merton