Sea bass with ginger, garlic & chilli

With the summer fast approaching I've slowly started moving away from eating soups for dinner and looking for lighter and fresher options. To me white fish has always been a kind of summery food as it's really light and I can't honestly imagine eating white fish as a comfort food during a cold winter evening. Unless of course, when it's inside a fish pie, but then it is a totally different story.

Another great perk of cooking white fish is that it is so quick to make. It took me longer to chop up the ginger, garlic, chilli and the spring onions than to fry the fish. And if you're short of time and what to have a decisions dinner on the table in 10 minutes then white fish is a perfect way to go.

I really love sea bass and I have to say that it's probably my favourite white fish. It's really easy to pair with everything and I've fried and steamed it and it has come out great whichever way I've decided to prepare it.

I came across this recipe when I was looking through BBC Good Food website again, and it really stood out because of its simplicity. Don't get me wrong, I love trying out new and different things and testing ingredients I haven't used before. But sometimes it's quite nice to just do something really simple and fuss free, which also means that there was no need for me to go out and buy a whole load of new ingredients that would just take up cupboard space, or even worse - would go off before I had a chance to use them up.

I love how the flavours and different textures work together in this recipe. And I have to admit that the Asian twist really took me back to my Singapore times and made me feel slightly nostalgic. The fish was lovely and crispy on the outside, but oh so tender and juicy on the inside. The chilli added the extra bit of spiciness, as did the crispy garlic, and the ginger just added that extra layer of flavour.

Quick, light, tasty and incredibly fuss free to make - harder to find a more suitable mid-week dinner recipe. Serve with some rice or enjoy on its own.

Ingredients

(Serves 1)
- 1 sea bass fillet, skin on
- 1 tsp sunflower oil
- Small piece of ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 1/2 garlic clove, thinly sliced
- 1/2 red chilli, deseeded and thinly sliced
- Spring onion, to serve
- Salt, pepper, to season
- 1 tsp soy sauce

Directions
Pat the fish dry, slash the skin 3 times and season the fish with salt and pepper. Heat the sunflower oil in a frying pan and add the fish skin side down once its hot. Fry for 5 minutes or so until the skin is crisp and golden and then turn over and try for another minute or so and then transfer the fish to a plate. Add the ginger, garlic and chillies and fry them for about 2 minutes until golden and crispy. Pour the soy sauce over the fish, spoon the ginger, garlic and chillies on top of it and garnish with spring onions. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Recipe from bbcgoodfood.com