Preparation time
less than 30 mins
Cooking time
1 to 2 hours
Serves
Serves 2

From Saturday Kitchen
Ingredients
For the braised mushrooms
- 2 dried ancho or chipotle chillies
- 2 Portobello mushrooms
- dash olive oil
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 red pepper, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
For the roasted sea bass
- 30g/1oz plain flour
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 whole sea bass, head removed, cut through the bone into 2 steaks and scored
- 2 thyme sprigs
- 40g/1½oz unsalted butter, diced
- 1 lemon, juice only
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the sautéed wild mushrooms
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 40g/1½oz unsalted butter
- 200g/7oz mixed wild mushrooms
- 100g/3½oz cavolo nero
- 1 banana shallot, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp chopped fresh tarragon
Method
To make the braised mushrooms, put the chilies in a small bowl with hot water and leave to soften and rehydrate. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
Drain the chillies and chop into pieces. Put the whole mushrooms into a baking dish. Drizzle over some olive oil and top with the cumin, oregano, garlic, rehydrated chilli, red pepper and tomato purée. Cover with foil and roast for 40 minutes.
Remove the mushrooms from the baking dish and keep warm. Tip the remainder of the ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend to a purée. You can add mushroom cooking liquor to loosen if necessary. Set this mixture aside.
Increase the oven temperature to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7.
To make the roasted sea bass, dust the bass in the flour with some salt and pepper, then heat the oil in an ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat and fry the fish with the thyme on both sides until golden-brown. Transfer to the oven for 8–10 minutes. Add the butter and lemon juice at the end of cooking and spoon it over to baste the fish. Keep warm.
To make the sautéed mushrooms, heat the oil and butter in a pan. Add the wild mushrooms, cavolo nero, shallot, garlic and tarragon and fry until cooked through.
To serve, divide the Portabello mushrooms between 2 plates and spoon over some of the sauce. Add the wild mushrooms and cavolo nero, and finish with the sea bass.