Sea Bass with Gastrique

Sea Bass with Gastrique
serves 6

Roasting fish is really easy in the oven, the trick is to cook it through, but not overcook it. I like to lay down a layer of foil on a sheet pan under the fish so that it's easy to clean up.

6 8 ounce filets of Sea Bass or other rich fleshed ocean (not fresh water) fish
extra virgin olive oil
fine sea salt

Heat the oven to 400∞. Place the filets on the sheet pan. Lightly coat the filets with olive oil. Sprinkle the filets generously with sea salt. Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the flesh is still moist but flakes apart easily when you coax it with a fork. Spoon a large tablespoons of the Gastrique sauce over each filet just before serving.


Gastrique for the fish
Makes 1/2 cup
Gastrique is a fancy French way of saying caramel made with vinegar. It's a technique used for making the orange sauce in the famous Duck a l'Orange.
All very intimidating sounding, but quite do-able. Be brave, the scariest part about this sauce is when you add the vinegar to the caramel, it hisses and spits at you, so stand back. You can tame the beast.

Make this sauce and store it tightly covered at room temperature for up to two days.

2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
large pinch of salt

Place the sugar and 1/4 cup of water in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Stir continually until the sugar melts completely, about 5 minutes, brush any sugar sticking to the sides of the pan off with a barely wet pastry brush. Don’t touch the pan at this point to stir it or otherwise. The sugar mixture will start to turn a golden color after about 15 minutes, swirl (don’t stir) to spread the caramelization throughout the melted sugar. The caramel will start to turn a deeper amber color, remove it from the stove. Immediately stir in the vinegar, salt and zest with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula. The mixture will froth and bubble madly, be careful! Stir until the caramel is dissolved completely in the vinegar.

Transfer the gastrique to a heat proof cup or sauce boat with a spout. The sauce can be reheated in a microwave or placed in a small saucepan filled half way with hot water over low heat.