Grilled Sea Bass

Make Ahead and Storage

Best eaten fresh. Keeps for 1 day in the fridge.

Grilled Sea Bass: The Method

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1. Heat the grill to its highest setting. Pat the fillets dry, score the skin 2 or 3 times and brush with 1 tbsp of the olive oil. Season with the salt.

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2. Place the fillets skin side up on a lined tray, about 8 cm from the grill. Cook for 4 minutes.

   Mark done Start 4 min timer

3. Turn the fillets and grill for 2 to 3 minutes more until the flesh is opaque and flakes.

   Mark done Start 2 min timer

4. Mix the remaining oil with the lemon juice, capers, parsley and garlic.

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5. Spoon over the fish and serve with the lemon wedges.

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A Few Pointers

• Dry the skin completely.
• Score the skin to stop the fillets curling.
• Spoon the sauce on just before serving.

Why the Method Is What It Is

It looks like a restaurant dish and takes less time than the potatoes. Grilled sea bass is mostly a matter of good fish, a hot grill and the discipline to leave it alone. Fillets with the skin on cook evenly and the skin crisps into something worth eating.

Pat the fillets dry, brush the skin with olive oil, and season with salt. The skin must be bone dry or it will steam instead of blistering. Score it with two or three shallow cuts, which stops the fillet curling under the heat and lets the oil reach the flesh.

Start skin side up under a very hot grill, about 8 cm from the element, for 4 minutes. Then turn the fish and give it another 2 to 3 minutes. This sequence cooks the flesh from the top while the skin crisps against the hot tray, and the fish stays moist.

The sauce is raw and quick: olive oil, lemon juice, capers and parsley, spooned over just before serving. It is bright and salty, and a good match for the sweet, delicate flesh of sea bass.

What to Put Next to It

New potatoes · Green beans · Tomato salad · Couscous

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Briam, Horiatiki Greek Salad.

Ingredient Swaps

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

What's in a Serving

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

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