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I trust you all had wonderful holiday season? As we all get back to work and try our hardest to shift the pounds we gained over the Christmas break, figuring out WHAT to eat as winter leaves us and spring approaches can sometimes be challenging.  But fear not! The Love Cafe is here to recommend another delightful recipe courtesy of our friends at Good Food magazine.

As the weather warms up [never mind that its ever-so-slightly], we tend to want simpler, fresher textures that fill without bloating. Spring therefore is a perfect time for light salads, fish, gentle grains like cous cous, and flavours like lemon and lime. here then is our first foray into a simple dish that packs a flavoursome punch whilst remembering to be kind to the waistline! Happy cooking....


Sea Bass with sizzled ginger, chilli & spring onions

Ingredients

  • 6 x sea bass fillets, about 140g/5oz each, skin on and scaled
  • about 3 tbsp sunflower oil
  • large knob of ginger , peeled and shredded into matchsticks
  • 3 garlic cloves , thinly sliced
  • 3 fat, fresh red chillies deseeded and thinly shredded
  • bunch spring onion , shredded long-ways
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
Method
  1. Season the fish with salt and pepper, then slash the skin 3 times. Heat a heavy-based frying pan and add 1 tbsp oil. Once hot, fry the fish, skin-side down, for 5 mins or until the skin is very crisp and golden. The fish will be almost cooked through. Turn over, cook for another 30 secs-1 min, then transfer to a serving plate and keep warm. You'll need to fry the fish in 2 batches.
  2. Heat the remaining oil, then fry the ginger, garlic and chillies for about 2 mins until golden. Take off the heat and toss in the spring onions. Splash the fish with a little soy sauce and spoon over the contents of the pan.
Buying fish
Ask your fishmonger or supermarket for line-caught fish, for a sustainable choice.

Chinese New Year
Fish has a very special place in the Chinese New Year menu as it symbolises abundance. Normally it would be served with the head and tail on, bringing a good beginning and end to the New Year. Here it is filleted for simplicity, but you can easily adapt the recipe if you like.

Per serving 202 kcalories, protein 28g, carbohydrate 2g, fat 9 g, saturated fat 1g, fibre 0g, sugar 1g, salt 0.26 g

(c) Recipe from Good Food magazine, February 2007.