Pan Fried Striped Bass

The most memorable thing about my one and only trip to Martha's Vineyard was tasting Striped Bass for the first time and loving it. That was 10 years ago and I rarely saw the fish in California, but now it is available here more regularly.

After looking through our collection of cookbooks for a good recipe for Striped Bass, Paul ended up once again with one of Alice Waters' recipes from her Art of Simple Food. Cooked this way, the fish stays moist, yet the skin is perfectly crispy.

With all those luscious Meyers from Amy and Doug, I now feel free to generously douse everything in Meyer Lemon juice and zest.




INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound of Striped Bass, cut into 4 pieces
• 1/4 cup olive oil, plus 1-2 tablespoons
  
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
• juice of 2 lemons
• salt and pepper to taste

Salt fish about an hour before cooking.

For the sauce, combine olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Whisk sauce right before serving.

For this preparation, you are going to need 2 frying pans that will fit inside of one another.

Wrap the underside of the smaller pan with tinfoil. In the meantime heat larger pan over medium-high heat. Pour 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil in hot pan (enough to coat bottom of pan). When oil is hot but not smoking, add fish skin-side down. Take smaller pan (already wrapped in tinfoil) and place it on top of the cooking fish. The weight of the top pan make for an even contact between the skin side and the hot pan, ensuring a crispy finish. Cook for 7 minutes, then remove top pan, flip fish, and cook for one more minute.

Pour a puddle of sauce of each plate and place fish skin-side down on top of the sauce.

Serves 4