Nigel Slater’s steamed bream and baked sea bass recipes (2024)

A whole fish is a splendid thing to bring to the table. Steamed, Chinese style with ginger, chillies and spring onions perhaps, or baked with the flavours of the Mediterranean, tomatoes, onions, olives and anchovies. Both have been on the table this week, a whole bream and a sea bass, each fish just enough for two.

The bream was steamed in the classic style with just a few aromatics – ginger, spring onions, a chilli – and a little dry sherry for want of the Shaoxing wine I thought I had in the cupboard, but then found out I hadn’t.

The sea bass was a different affair altogether, baked in a very hot oven to lightly crisp the skin, it was roasted over sweet sharp tomatoes, anchovies, olives and rosemary. It came from the oven smelling like the very essence of summer.

There are other possibilities. The idea of baking fish with tomatoes can be extended to trout, sea bass or red mullet, the steaming method suits most small, whole white fish.

Steaming is a sound way to cook bream and similarly delicately textured fish. The tricky thing is finding a fish that will fit your steamer. Sea bass can sometimes be too long. Before now, I have cut an unsuitably sized fish into thick pieces and packed them loosely into the steamer.

The important thing is to keep the pieces of fish on the bone. That way the flesh stays succulent and the bones prevent the fish from falling apart. Just be sure to add a bone plate when you’re laying the table, so people can clear their own meal of the bits they don’t want.

Bream with pak choi

Simple flavours here, but you could use the basic method with other aromatics. Try including lemon grass. Crush two plump stems with the back of a heavy knife so they splinter, then add them to the fish. The steam will smell wonderful.

You need a wok, a large steamer basket with a lid, and a plate on which the fish will sit.

Rinse the fish and dry with kitchen paper. Lay the whole fish on a large plate. Sit the plate inside the steamer basket. Peel the ginger and cut it into small, short shreds about the size of matchsticks. Scatter these over the fish. Peel the garlic then thinly slice and add to the fish. Cut the chillies in half and place them on the plate (you will remove them later, when they have done their work.) Trim the spring onions, discarding the very toughest of the green shoots. Chop the pale green and white parts of the onion and add the white to the fish, reserve the green part.

Trickle the wine over the fish then add the star anise. Season with salt.

Half fill a wok with water, place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Place the steamer over the water and cover tightly – you may need to bend or trim the tail – and let the fish cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until it’s firm.

While the fish cooks, halve the heads of pak choi lengthwise, rinse thoroughly, then cook in lightly salted, boiling water for 3 or 4 minutes until bright and tender. Lift the pak choi out, season lightly with soy sauce and sesame oil and serve with the fish, removing the chillies first.

Baked sea bass with tomatoes and anchovies

A 500 to 600g sea bass is enough for two. I get the fishmonger to clean it for me, so that when I get it back to the kitchen it simply needs a quick rinse and patting dry with kitchen paper. After I have seasoned it inside and out with salt and finely ground pepper, I stuff the belly with thyme and rosemary leaves before roasting.

Serves 2
a sea bass 1 x 500-600g, cleaned
tomatoes 750g
capers 16
anchovy fillets 12
green peppercorns in brine 2 tsp
thyme 6 sprigs
rosemary the leaves of 12 stems
olive oil

Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Discard the stalks from the tomatoes, then slice each tomato horizontally into 4. Lay them in a single layer in a roasting tin. Rinse the capers of their salt or brine and scatter over the tomatoes. Wipe the oil or salt from the anchovy fillets then drape them across the tomatoes. Season generously with black pepper. Scatter the green peppercorns, together with a teaspoon or two of their bottling liquid, over the tomatoes.

Rinse the fish, wipe it dry with a paper towel, then place it on the tomatoes. Season inside and out with salt and black pepper. Tuck half the thyme inside the belly, then scatter the rest over the tomatoes. Chop the rosemary and add to the dish.

Trickle olive oil generously over the fish and tomatoes then bake for 25-30 minutes, until the fish is lightly crisped and the tomatoes juicily soft. There should be some delicious cooking juices in the roasting tin.

Divide the fish between two plates and serve with the roasted tomatoes and anchovies.

Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @NigelSlater