Sea Bass With Tomato Vinaigrette

Sea Bass with Tomato Vinaigrette over Barley Rissoto

 This recipe could not be any easier! If you are afraid to cook fish this would be a good recipe to start with. You can't get it wrong! 

This recipe comes from www.myrecipes.com

Here is what you will need: 

1 Piece of fish per person around 1 1/2 inches in thickness (this recipe is a serving for 4, I personally would use it more for a serving of 2, if you want to consider the tomatoes as a side as well. 

1 cup of cherry tomatoes sliced in half. I used both yellow and red

Chives diced

2 green onions

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves of garlic minced

1/2 of a fresh lemon

1 Tablespoon of sherry vinegar ( I didn't have this, so I used white wine vinegar and a splash of vermouth) The alcahol cooks out

1 tsp salt

pepper

Quinoa, couscous, or barley (whichever you prefer.) 

Step 1:  cook couscous or quinoa according to package. I just boiled mine in water and set it aside when it was done.  (I have made this recipe with quinoa and with barley risotto) I will post the recipe for risotto at the end.  Couscous only takes moments to cook and quinoa takes around 15 to 20 minutes to cook.

 Sept 2: While the above is cooking heat your oven to 350 degrees, and start your vinaigrette. Dice up the green onions, garlic, tomatoes, and chives. Have a lemon ready to use.

 Step 3: Heat a pan over medium heat and add the garlic (sorry about the big black spot on my pan) Brown garlic around 30 seconds.

 Step 4: Reduce heat to medium and add onions and tomatoes. Cook down a few minutes. They will start to look a little wilty and soft.

 Step 5: Take the pan off the heat, squeeze as much juice as you can out of 1/2 a lemon, add the sherry vinegar and stir it around.

 You will want to set this aside and keep it warm. The sauce is going to thicken slightly and the flavors meld together well as it sits.

 (I wanted to include this picture just so you can see what sea bass looks like. It has really pretty skin and is just a nice thick white fish. It is very mild in taste and almost tastes like it is cooked in butter. When it is ready if you use a fork it will flake apart without much pressure.

 Step 6: Salt and Peper your fish ( I was only cooking for 1, but do this to all your pieces)

 Step 7: Add 1/2 tsp of olive oil to a pan (more if cooking many pieces). You want to heat your pan at Medium High and let the oil get hot. Place the fish in the pan and it should have a really good sizzle sound when you put it in the pan. This is how you know your pan is nice and hot. Cook for just a few minutes to crisp the skin. (I do not eat the skin, but this also allows it to seperate easily from the skin when it is cooked.)

 Step 8: Place the other lemon in slices in the pan with the fish. Put the pan in the oven (if it is safe for your pan to go in the oven) and you want to cook the fish for 20 minutes. This fish seems to almost puff up a little as it cooks. I promise you that your fish is going to be cooked through.

 About 1 minute before the fish is done cooking, get your quinoa, couscous, or barley risotto onto the plate. Place the fish on the plate and top with 1/4 cup of sauce. Sprinkle with chives and serve. (the picture at the top is the dinner with the risotto, and below is with quinoa)
(1 RED, 1/2 GREEN, 1 YELLOW) if serving with quinoa or couscous. The sauce will mix in with the grain and flavor it, so I don't add anything to the grain for flavor.

How to make the Risotto: 

Trader Joes has these wonderful little bags of 10 minute barley, farro, and bulgar wheat. 

 on the side of the package there are directions for how to cook the barley as risotto.
1 quart chicken stock
4 Tablespoons olive oil
1 diced onion
1 clove of garlic diced
(I left the mushrooms out becuase i didn't have any)
pepper
1/2 cup white wine
salt
2 Tablespoons butter (I used half)
4 Tablespoons parmasean cheese shredded
1/4 cup parsley if you want it
This is something I would count as (1 YELLOW, 1 BLUE) I probably would not count the wine in it because the alcahol cooks out and that is where the fat and calories are going to come from with wine. There are not enough mushrooms or onions to count this as a veggie serving either.

**If anyone thinks this should count differently please comment on it and let me know. Sometimes I have to figure it out the best way I can and how I count it. I am sure sometimes I will be wrong**