This recipe was concocted when my husband came home from deep sea fishing with about 15 meals worth of black sea bass. I've cooked regular sea bass before. The black version came in inch-thick filets with some bones, totally skinned, mostly white flesh. Some pieces were huge, and may have been from the one non-black sea bass they caught -- those are larger, up to about 3 feet or so, with firm white flesh (mostly) and a mild-medium flavor. The black ones were about half that size or so, but similar flesh and a mild flavor.

This recipe is easy. It serves 2 as a main dish, for a hearty lunch or dinner. I would make wild rice pilaf or some potato wedges to go with it if serving for dinner.

Note: This takes about 20-30 minutes including prep time.

• 2 fillets of black sea bass (or other firm white-fleshed fish) about an inch or so thick and about 3x5 inches. Make sure it's skinned, and remove any remaining red bits if you don't like stronger flavor. I had a large fillet that I'd cut into serving size pieces.
• olive oil
• one small onion (about golf ball size or a bit bigger)
• One large stalk of celery, or two from a "hearts" package
• One half cup of frozen corn (I freeze my own so it was REALLY sweet. You could use fresh corn cut from the cob.)
• One red Italian frying pepper (long thin skinny sweet) (or 1/4 of a red bell pepper)
• One green Italian frying pepper (or half a green bell pepper)
• Salt and pepper
• Some brown spicy mustard that you like... I used the end of a jar of horseradish mustard, which was great!
• 1/2 tsp grated garlic from the jar, or one good-sized clove fresh garlic, minced

Heat about 2 T olive oil in a large skillet that has a cover (I used my larger cast iron skillet... it's about a foot across). Chop into small pieces and add, in this order and stirring between additions and then as needed so it browns, onion, celery ... fry a while then... corn (do not chop lol!) ... fry until corn is starting to brown... garlic and pepper. Fry until all veggies have a little bit of browning on them.

Salt/pepper the fish (and the veggies in the pan while you're at it) on the formerly skinned side, then add about a teaspoon of mustard to each piece and spread everything around on that side until it's coated.

Move all the veggies to form a ring around the edge of the pan. Pour another Tbsp or two of olive oil in the middle and let it heat a bit, then place the fish on top of that, mustard side down.

Pepper and mustard and spread around... the tops of the fillets.

Turn heat to fairly low, cover, and cook for about 12 minutes... less if the fish is thinner. It is basically steaming. You can oven-bake also... but that takes heating up the oven and pan steaming is easier.

Serve the veggies aside the fish. If you are making rice or potatoes, serve them up next to the fish too. Don't put the fish atop the rice because this fish has bones and the rice makes it harder to find them and easier to lose one in the rice and that is not what you want.

That is it! It took less time to make than what I'm describing, and was delicious. Making sure the corn browns a little is crucial to making it taste nutty sweet.

(My old house really looked like that in the winter!)

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Last Modified: 17 November 2013