Pan-fried sea bass

Sea bass with chef Executive Chef Bernado Cabrera at Azerai Cần Thơ restaurant

Ingredients:

Green pea puree

- Frozen green peas: 100g

- Butter: 120g

- Shallots: 30gr

- Garlic: 50gr

- Mint: 10gr

- Pepper: 5gr

- Salt: 5gr

Tartar sauce

- Mayonaise: 400gr

- Dill pickles: 330gr

- Dill: 15gr

- Lemon: 80gr

- Sugar: 15gr

- Black pepper: 2gr

- Shallots: 80gr

- Garlic: 2gr

- Sea bass: 220gr

- Potato: 90gr

Method:

Pea puree: On a medium heat pan, add butter, garlic and shallots. Cook until soft add the green peas frozen and cook for about 5-7 minutes. Season, add water and bring to a boil, then blend, adding mint at the end. Don’t blend for too long or the colour change.

Tartar sauce: Finely chop all the ingredients and mix with mayonnaise and a bit of juice from the dill pickles.

Executive Chef Bernado Cabrera at Azerai Cần Thơ restaurant

Potatoes: Cut the potatoes into 2x2cm cubes, place in a pot with 2 litres of water and 1 tsp salt, and bring to a boil. After 4 minutes, check with a toothpick; if it goes through easily, take the spuds out of the water and place them on a paper towel to dry and put aside.

Once the potato is cool, deep-fry at 170 degrees Celsius. For thin-cut fries, thin-slice the potatoes and cut them into strips of about 5mm. Place in water with lime and wait until starch goes out, which might take about 15 minutes; fry in oil at 160 degrees Celsius, avoiding high heat to not burn the thin-cut fries.

Sea bass: On a non-stick pan, place 1 tsp vegetable oil and turn on medium heat; season the fish with salt and pepper and start cooking the skin side; when the side of the fish starts changing to a whitish colour, flip and continue cooking. Place it in the oven pre-heated at 190 degrees Celsius for 6-7 minutes.

Caramelized lemon: On a cold non-stick pan, place halved seeded yellow lemons, turn on to medium heat, and let the lemon start caramelizing. This will take about 7-10 minutes, depending on the heat.

Plating: Spread pea puree on a plate, place the fried potatoes on the left side of the dish and the fried sea bass on the right Then place a tablespoon of tartar sauce in the middle and top with thick-cut fries and decorate with microgreens.

Bon appetit!