Are you ready to learn an incredibly delicious pan fried sea bass recipe?
Getting sea bass just right can be a bit tricky. There are of course a number of ways to do it but this pan fried sea bass recipe will get you excellent results every time.
Pan fried sea bass can be served in so many ways.
Here I serve it with masala mash, kachumber salad and coriander chutney.
Those flavour together with the mouthwatering crispy sea bass are incredible!
This pan seared sea bass is delicious with masala mash and a good chutney.
How to get crispy bass skin
Have you ever gone out to a restaurant and been underwhelmed by the state of the skin? So often it is moist or even oily.
In order to make sure this doesn’t happen to you, I want to show you how to ensure you get the crispiest skin possible.
There is a lot of moisture in the skin and that has to come out before frying.
If you look at the knife above you will see the moisture being scraped out of the skin.
This is a technique that is beneficial for any skin-on fried fish.
Scrape the skin down the fillet or whole fish a few times until all of the moisture has been extracted.
Perfect crispy skin every time!
Working ahead…
The scraping of the skin can be done a couple of hours before cooking.
You can also sprinkle the skin with the tandoori masala at the same time.
As this pan fried sea bass is served with masala mash, kachumber salad and coriander chutney, you might also like to prepare them ahead of time too.
You can do this one or two days ahead of serving and then just heat the masala mash up before serving.
The frying of the fish should be done just before serving though.
Completing the fried sea bass…
The fillets can be cooked whole or cut into pieces. I cut mine to fit my pan.
Sprinkle the bass fillets with tandoori masala.
Shop bought is ok but if you really want to take your pan fried sea bass to a whole new level, try my homemade version! The recipe on my site for tandoori masala has food colouring in it.
I don’t usually add this as it add no flavour.
I used my own homemade tandoori masala but you could use a good quality shop bought masala.
Fry the sea bass over medium high heat, skin side down until crispy on the underside. Pressing the fillets down with a spatula will get a crispier skin.
Sprinkle the top with a little more tandoori masala if you like and then flip over to cook through. Flip again to give the skin one last sear.
About those sides…
This mash is delicious served with the pan fried sea bass.
The side dishes suggested in this recipe are exactly that… suggestions.
You can find the recipe here. Feel free to halve or double the recipe. You will need to add the time of making this mash recipe onto the time it takes to make the sea bass but it can be made ahead of time.
The recipe for kachumber salad is also quick and easy to make. You will find that recipe here.
Get this on your plate! You’ll be glad you did.
Pan Fried Sea Bass with Masala Mash
Ingredients
- FOR THE SEA BASS
- 4 sea bass fillets - halved
- 1 - 2 tbsp tandoori masala
- 3 Tablespoons rapeseed (canola) oil
- Salt to taste
- FOR THE CORIANDER CHUTNEY
- 1 large bunch coriander (cilantro)
- 3 cloves garlic - smashed
- 3 - 5 green bird's eye chillies
- 250g (1 cup) plain Greek yoghurt
- Juice of one lime
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Scrape the moisture out of the skin of the bass as demonstrated in the photo above. Then sprinkle with tandoori masala and set aside while you make the chutney.
- Place the coriander (cilantro), garlic, chillies and half 1 quarter of the yoghurt in a blend and blend to a paste. Blending yoghurt makes it really runny which is why you don't put it all in.
- Transfer the coriander paste to a bowl and whisk in the remaining yoghurt.
- Squeeze in the lime juice and season with salt to taste. Set aside
- Now heat the oil in a frying pan. When hot, add the bass fillets skin side down. Fry for a few minutes or until the bass easily comes away from the pan and the skin is super crispy.
- Flip over to cook the other side and then flip over a gain for one last sear of the skin.
- Season with salt to taste.
- To serve, place some heated mashed masala potato on a heated plate. Top with a couple of pieces of the sea bass. Then serve with the kachumber salad and a good amount of coriander chutney.