Tim Dover, chef owner of The Roost in Bridge of Earn, teaches us an ancient method of cooking.
Sealing food in pastry, dough, salt crust or even leaves is an ancient method of cooking.
The beauty of baking in a salt crust is that you can cook your dish gently and evenly.
The salt seals all of the natural taste of the ingredients in and you end up with a perfectly cooked dish that is bursting with flavour and fragrance, which escapes the minute you crack into the crust, revealing the delicious ingredients buried beneath the crisp shell.
Although it might seem challenging, it is straightforward and a great make-ahead recipe.
You can prepare most salt-baked dishes a few hours in advance and keep aside until you’re ready to bake them.
At the moment, we prepare a celeriac dish this way for one of our vegetarian main course dishes at the restaurant.
Here is a salt-baked whole seabass recipe for you to try at home …
Salt-baked sea bass
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 1 kg coarse sea salt
- 2 tbsp water
- 2 large free-range eggs
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- 1 lemon, zested or rind peeled then cut into
thick slices - 1 kg whole sea bass, gutted and gills out – ask your fishmonger for this if you’re unsure
- 1 small bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley
- Fresh ground black pepper
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C Fan/200C/400F/ Gas Mark 6. Put the sea salt into a large bowl with the water, your eggs, fennel seeds and the peeled rind or zest of the lemon.
- Mix everything together until evenly moistened, then spread two-thirds of the mixture on to the base of a roasting tray in a thick even layer.
- Stuff the cavity of the sea bass with the parsley and slices of lemon, then lay the fish on the salt and completely cover it with the remaining salt in another even layer around 1.5cm thick. Pat it down firmly, then put into the oven for at least 15 minutes.
- Check it is cooked by using a skewer or thin bladed knife into the thickest part of the fish – when this is hot to the touch the fish is cooked. Remove from the oven and allow to rest in the salt for 10-12 minutes.
- The salt will have formed a hard shell – knock the salt around the edges with the back of a knife. If you’re lucky, the whole top piece will lift off. Otherwise it will break away in pieces.
- Carefully brush the excess salt off the fish, trying not to let the salt touch the flesh. If you can, gently move the whole fish to a serving platter using a fish slice. Otherwise, you may have to do the following in place.
- Run a knife along the spine of the fish from the tail to the head, lift and carefully peel off the skin, then cut across the fish below the head. Use the knife to find the bones, then carefully lift the fillet up so the fish comes away.
- Discard any bones and place the fish in big flakes on your serving plates.
- Serve with aioli, buttered potatoes and some fennel shavings dressed with good quality olive oil.
