Salt Crusted Sea Bass
Ingredients
• 1 very fresh fish, preferably sea bass or other fish with good scales.
Be sure to keep head, tail and scales but empty and cut off the fins.
• Rock salt, enough to create a bed under the fish and cover the fish with about
½ inch thickness (approximately 4/5 kilos for a 1.5 kilo fish).
* Egg whites 1-3 depending on how big your fish is and therefore how much salt
you will use (approx. 3 whites for 4 kilos of salt).
• Herbes such as rosemary and thyme or herbes de provence.
• Optional, lemon, celery, fennel or bay leaf.
Instructions
- Heat oven to 475° F.
- Pour rock salt into a large bowl, Mix in egg whites and herbes, with your hands or 2 big spoons until homogenously moistened.
- Stuff the empty fish cavity with lemons and bay leaf, or other things that inspire you like fennel.
- Put approximately 1/3 of the salt into the bottom of large roasting pan. Pack firmly the remaining salt over fish to completely cover it. This creates a crust that seals in the moisture.
- Bake at 475 degrees F
- Aproximately 30-35 minutes for a 1.5 kilo fish.
- Let rest out of oven for another 10 minutes
- In the baking pan, crack the crust with a knife and peel off salt crust, carefully.
- Clear all the salt away from fish or it will be too salty.
- Then peel off skin with a knife and spoon and serve.
- I generally serve directly from the baking pan because it is difficult to maneuver the fish without getting the salt all over.
- Serve with a Beurre Blanc and Steamed Potatoes or Braised Endives.
