Stuffed Bass

MY nephew has been sea-fishing again and this time brought me a lovely big bass. I often let bass speak for itself and merely flash fry fillets. As I'm not too good at filleting, this time I thought I'd try something different and stuff a whole fish.

Here's the recipe I used. It's from www.bassonhook.com/fishforfood/ Let's face it, they ought to be experts on cooking bass! There were lots of bass recipes here but not that many for a whole bass. This was absolutely delicious. I left the bone in as it seemed very fiddly to remove it! It didn't affect the cooking time as 45 minutes seemed ample for a 2lbs bass. There's nothing worse than overcooked fish.

Stuffed Bass (serves 2)

Ingredients
2 lb bass
2 tbsp butter
onion, minced
2 tbsp parsley, minced
6 mushrooms, chopped
6 anchovies, chopped
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
10 cooked prawns cooked or 1 cooked fillet of flounder, sole, or halibut
1 egg slightly beaten
salt and pepper
lemon juice
2 rashers bacon cut in strips for larding
1/2 cup melted butter
1 onion sliced
2 tbsp parsley, chpped
1 cup white wine or fish stock
3/4 cup sour cream
Remove the centre bone but do not cut in half or behead. Wash, pat dry, sprinkle with salt and refrigerate 45 min. Preheat oven to 400.

To prepare stuffing, melt butter in skillet/frying pan and when bubbling saute onion, parsley and mushrooms 5 min. Mix in anchovies, breadcrumbs and shrimp or cooked fish. Toss and mix in beaten egg.

Rinse and dry fish, sprinkle inside with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Lard fish across back with bacon strips. Stuff the fish and truss with skewers or sew shut. Spread a little melted butter in a baking dish, add fish and top with onion slices and parsley. Pour the rest of the butter over the fish and vegetables.

Bake 45 min basting frequently with wine or stock. Add sour cream to the pan not on the fish for the last 10 min. When fish is done remove trussing and serve on a heated platter garnished with the vegetables and covered with the sauce.

Take a look at these websites for more kitchen information and pictures:
Country Kitchens
Kitchen Gallery
Kitchen Talk

Subscribe to Kitchen Cook and we'll email you every time the website is updated. All you have to do is pop your email address in the 'subscribe' form in the panel on the right.