Sea Bass and Potatoes with a Provençale Sauce

Travelling up to Suffolk to handle my mother's probate and stopping at The Food Company at Marks Tey to buy some supplies I saw a magnificent sea bass, freshly caught, and couldn't resist it. On arrival the Aga was alight and, with what I had, I put together this oven dish.

  • Serves 2
  • 2 reasonable sized sea bass fillets
  • A couple of large Charlotte potatoes, sliced into 5ml rounds
  • ½ an onion sliced vertically
  • ½ a red and ½ a green pepper, quartered and sliced
  • a clove of garlic finely chopped
  • Noilly Prat or white wine
  • 1 tin/400ml chopped tomatoes
  • A handful of stuffed olives
  • Dried oregano
  • Olive Oil
  1. Boil the potato slices until they are virtually cooked.
  2. Sautée the onion in plenty of olive oil 'til it's transparent.
  3. Add the garlic and fry 'til it's transparent (if you prefer your pepper well cooked, add it with the garlic)
  4. Turn up the heat and add a splash of Noilly Prat, cook until the sizzling ceases
  5. Add the tomatoes and a sprinkling of dried oregano and stir through.
  6. Add the olives and peppers and bring the whole to the boil, remove from the heat.
  7. Arrange the potatoes in the bottom of a shallow casserole.
  8. Spoon over the sauce.
  9. Lay the fillets, skin side up, over the top and brush olive oil over the skin.
  10. Place in a cold oven and heat to medium hot (gas 6/200C). Cook for 10 minutes more.
  11. If using an Aga prewarm the casserole dish to prevent it cracking, keep the sauce hot whilst waiting for the potatoes to cook and cook for 15 minutes in the top oven.