Sea Bass en Papillote, Balthazar London, 

 

I tried to revive the sea bass en papillote that I tasted in Balthazar London. 

The lightly pan fried sea bass and veggies are steamed in a paper bag with a hint of curry powder. 

Though slightly different from the one in Balthazar, I think this is truly enjoyable fish dish. 

Either sea bass or plaice works beautifully. 

Ingredients (per person)

• a fillet of sea bass or plaice 
• 2-3 sliced fennel 
• 4-5 pieces of small bitesized potato (cooked in microwave for 40 seconds)
• Bitesized asparagus
• 2-3 cherry tomatoes
• 1 stem of fresh rosemary 
• 1 teaspoon of soy sauce
• 2-3 pinches of curry powder
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of White wine

Directions

1. Season the fish lightly with salt, black pepper and soy sauce.

2. Heat up a large frying pan over medium temperature.Fry the fennel and potato lightly with olive oil and set them aside.

3. Clean the pan and fry the fish from skin side with rosemary over medium temperature till the skin gets slightly crispy.  Don't cook the fish completely but just the surface. Add white wine in the end.

4. Prepare a piece of baking sheet large enough to wrap the ingredients (40cmx30cm). Place fennel, potato, asparagus, rosemary, fish and cherry tomato. Sprinkle pinches of salt and small amount of curry powder over the ingredients. 

Plaice 

Sea Bass 

5. Fold the paper to wrap the ingredients as suggested in these images. Start folding it from the top and then close the both sides.

Folding the top for 2-3 times

Folding the one of the ends

6. Place the bag in a tin and grill in the oven over 200C for 10 minutes.

7. Serve the bag over a dish.

In order to attain the elegant flavour, better not to add too much curry powder that might ruin the scent of rosemary. A tiny hint of soy sauce in seasoning creates the depth in flavour and harmonise all.

I made this for toddler bento 

Balthazar London

It was the exact copy of Balthazar N.Y. including the quality of the bread as well as the automatic top up coffee service. 

The Onion Gratin Soup was also very delicious. 

Total time to prepare the sea bass/plaice pappillote: 25 minutes
Total cost for two+: 3.50 for Sea Bass or 2.70 for Plaice +0.7 for the rest of the ingredients