Fish for Dinner - Chilean Sea Bass with Tomato Puree with Basil

I enjoy certain types of fish for dinner but not all whereas the hubby will eat just about any. Chilean sea bass is my favorite fish and there are several recipes here that we have enjoyed more than once like Chilean sea bass picatta and air fryer Chilean sea bass. It’s just so wonderfully rich and buttery tasting you really don’t have to do much to it. I can honestly say I didn’t know what I was going to make when I started dinner this night but I can tell you that we both enjoyed what I created.

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Fish for Dinner: Roasted Chilean Sea Bass with Pureed Tomatoes with Basil

Serves 2

2 6oz Chilean sea bass fillets
2 TBS flour mixed with 1 tsp salt
1 TBS plus 1 tsp olive oil, divided
2 cups chopped, fresh tomatoes or 1 15oz can tomatoes
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp baking soda
salt to taste
10 large basil leaves, roughly chopped

For the pureed cauliflower:

2 cups cauliflower
water to cover
1 tsp salt
1 tsp butter
2 cups cooked Jasmine rice

Preheat oven to 350
Put the cauliflower in a medium pot and just cover with water. Add the teaspoon of salt. Boil until the cauliflower is soft enough to mash.
Heat a saute pan over medium heat. Add 1 tsp of olive oil. Then add the garlic and fry, stirring until it just starts to turn golden.

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Pour in the tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Lower the heat and let cook until most of the liquid evaporates. Use an immersion blender and puree the tomatoes. If you don’t have an immersion blender either remove to a regular blender to puree or just mash as best you can.

Add all but two tsp. of the chopped basil to the tomato puree. Cover and keep warm.
Mix the flour and the salt on a plate. Dredge the sea bass fillets on both sides in the flour mixture.

While the tomatoes are cooking heat an oven safe fry pan over medium heat, add the oil. Place the sea bass in the pan and cook for three minutes.
Carefully turn the fillets and then place the pan in the oven to finish cooking. Final cook time will depend on the thickness of your fish. Mine were 2″ and took 15 minutes to finish.
Remove the pan from the oven and please just remember that the pan is hot.

To Serve:

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Place a cup of rice on the plate, add a fillet and top with half of the tomato puree. Serve half of the cauliflower puree on the side. Sprinkle with remaining basil.

How Was the Fish for Dinner?

This was a wonderful fish for dinner; it was rich and buttery and the fresh tomato sauce (well, I did use tomatoes I had frozen from the summer so ….) with the smooth, earthy cauliflower mash just came together beautifully. I also loved the colors with the white fish, red tomato, pale lavender cauliflower and deep green basil. It was a delicious plate of food.

I do love sea bass as I mentioned and it pairs well with what we grow around here; the sea bass with eggplant pesto was one of my favorite dishes too. Hmmmm, I am going to have to make that again since I did freeze eggplant in large quantities last year.