Give it a go

  As I looked at the plates of food I served up tonight I realised that it's very easy to create something that looks spectacular and tastes sophisticated yet requires no more effort than any other home cooked meal, besides a modicum of planning. In fact, I made a point of seeing if I could make it without using every pan and utensil in the house. I could and here's the skinny.

​​​​​​​  What you see below is sea bass with quinoa, asparagus and broccoli and by the time you've finished reading today's email you'll be ready to make this yourself and bask in the admiration of your guests. Interested? Fab! Away we go. As far as prep, the only thing cooked in advance was the quinoa. As usual, it's the sort of thing I have as a leftover from a previous meal but rice or even pasta will work fine.

  As exotic as sea bass sounds, it's not super expensive and one fillet per portion is plenty. Take it out of the fridge ahead of time so it's at room temperature by the time you start cooking. I served it with a dressing of cherry tomato cooked with onion and we're going to start with that. In a a frying pan in a generous knob of melted butter, gently fry half a finely chopped onion. As it starts to soften, add some finely chopped garlic, about ten sliced cherry tomatoes and about a teaspoon of dried basil. Cook for about a minute, add the juice of half a lemon and set aside in a bowl.

  Put the asparagus in a steamer for a couple of minutes and set aside then the same with the broccoli florets. Now the bit where you get to feel like you're winning a Michelin star. In a small saucepan, put the quinoa to heat up with some butter or oil. Heat the frying pan over a medium heat with another big knob of butter and put the sea bass in skin side down. As the fish fillets are thin and at room temperature, they will only take a minute a side so they'll need to be turned pretty quickly. As soon as you've turned the fish, put the tomato mix in the pan to heat up and get your plates ready. Put the fish on the plate and spoon over the tomato.

  In the recently emptied frying pan, put yet another knob of butter and toss the asparagus and broccoli to warm them up, then arrange them magnificently next to the fish and then add the warmed quinoa. If you're so inclined, sprinkle the whole lot with a final garnish, like the sliced spring onion I used and served to rapturous applause. Total number of pans used? Frying pan, saucepan and a steamer. Are you a deeply impressive genius? Fucking right you are!

  

Kirk out

RevoltingFood.com