Recipe - Pan-Roasted Sea Bass With Wild Mushrooms

2 tablespoon Olive oil
2 pound Assorted fresh mushrooms,
such as white, shiitake,
oyster or chanerelle
large mushrooms quartered
5 tablespoon Cold unsalted butter, 2
tablespoons cut into pieces
Salt and freshly ground
pepper
3 md Leeks, white and tender
green, finely chopped
One half cup Chicken stock or canned
lowsodium broth
2 tablespoon Vegetable oil
4 Sea (6ounce) bass fillets
with skin, about 1One half in.
thick
One fourth cup Finely chopped fresh
flatleaf parsley

You need thick, firmfleshed fish fillets to take the heat of panroasting;
sea bass is ideal because the skin crisps up so nicely in the hot pan.
Tilefish makes a good alternative.

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet until almost smoking. Add the
mushrooms and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, for 2 minutes. Stir
in 1 tablespoon of the butter, reduce the heat to low and cook until the
mushrooms are browned and the pan is dry, about 7 minutes. Season with salt
and pepper and transfer to a saucepan.

2. Melt 2 more tablespoons of the butter in the skillet. Add the leeks,
cover and cook over low heat, stirring a few times, until tender, about 10
minutes. Season with salt and pepper and add to the mushrooms along with
the chicken stock; simmer for 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Preheat the oven to 450ø. In a large, heavybottomed ovenproof skillet,
heat the vegetable oil until almost smoking. Season the fish with salt and
pepper and add to the skillet, skin side down. Shake the skillet to loosen
the fillets and cook over high heat until the skin is browned and crisp,
about 5 minutes. Turn the fillets, transfer the skillet to the oven and
roast for about 4 minutes, or until the fish is just cooked through.

4. Stir the butter pieces and chopped parsley into the mushroomleek sauce.
Divide the sauce among 4 large plates and set the bass fillets on top.
Serve at once.

Food & Wine Magazine, December 1996
Posted to MMRecipes Digest by Julie Bertholf jewel1@ix.netcom.com on
Feb 16, 1998