Serves 4

Prep time 45 mins

Ingredients

For the seabass

8 seabass fillets. (Pin boned and scaled)
1 tbsp. veg oil for frying
Pinch of salt and pepper

For the bulgur wheat salad

100g raw medium bulgur wheat
½ medium onion
2 large tomatoes cut in fine brunoised style
75g cleaned calamari
8pcs peeled prawns
100ml white wine
125ml fish stock
Pinch of shredded parsley
Pinch of shredded mint
2 cloves garlic finely chopped

Method

For the seabass

As sea bass fillets have a tendency to curl when exposed to heat, score the skin three or four times with a sharp knife and be prepared to weigh the fillets down at the beginning of the cooking process.
To ensure crispy skin, dry the fillets with kitchen roll before seasoning them with salt. Lightly coat the base of a non-stick frying pan with oil then place the pan over a medium-high heat. Don’t put too much oil into the frying pan and make sure it has a chance to get hot before adding the fillets.
Once the pan is hot, season the fillets with salt and place in the pan skin-side down. Using a fish slice, press down on the fillets to prevent curling and to ensure even cooking of the skin
Cook for 3–4 minutes until the skin is nicely golden and crisp then carefully turn the fillets over to cook for 1 minute. The fish is cooked when the flesh becomes opaque

For the bulgur wheat salad

In a saucepan, pour about 600ml of boiling water over 125g of medium bulgur, cover the pan, and allow it to stand for about 30 minutes. Drain the bulgur in a strainer.
In a frying pan, add the veg oil and allow to heat. Gently fry the onion, garlic and tomatoes. Add the finely chopped fresh parsley, finely chopped fresh mint.
Pour the white wine and allow it to reduce. Finally add the calamari and prawns, pour the fish stock and allow to reduce by half.
Add the mixture to the bulgur wheat, stir with fork and fluff it up.

In an oven proof tray, place 4 fried fish fillets skin down. Cover the fish with the bulgur wheat. Place the last 4 fillets skin up over the bulgur wheat. Warm up in oven for 2 minutes at 175degrees C and serve.