Sea Bass Recipes: Pan-Seared, Baked, Salt Baked and More

These sea bass recipes are the ways I cook lubina at Casa Adora: crisp-skinned fillets in a hot pan, a single fillet sealed in a foil parcel, a prawn-topped fillet with salsa verde, and a whole fish cracked out of a salt crust. I write for a mostly UK audience, so these are sea bass recipes UK cooks can follow with fillets from a fishmonger, a supermarket or the freezer.

My fish comes from several places. Marta's store in the village will order a whole lubina, so fresh it is stiff. The midweek market in Baena has big fillets, already prepared. And my son Danny shops the Grimsby wholesale fish market most weeks and sends me his notes. Sea bass is a forgiving fish when it is this fresh: it asks for a hot pan or a probe thermometer, and very little else.

Jump to: Which Recipe? · Pan-Seared · Baked Fillets · Pan-Roasted with Prawns · Whole Fish · Buying Sea Bass · Cooking Notes

Which Sea Bass Recipe Should I Cook?

Start with how much time you have and whether you are cooking fillets or a whole fish.

• Fast, crisp skin: Pan-Seared Sea Bass with Mediterranean Vegetables, ready in under 25 minutes.
• Gentle and hands-off: Baked Sea Bass Fillets in Foil, a single fillet steamed in a sealed parcel.
• Ten minutes, with prawns: Danny's Pan Roasted Sea Bass with King Prawns and Salsa Verde.
• A whole fish for the oven: Salt Baked Sea Bass, or Baked Sea Bream (Dorada al Horno) on a bed of potatoes.

Pan-Seared Sea Bass

If you only cook one of these, make this one. Pan-Seared Sea Bass with Mediterranean Vegetables is high heat, skin-side down and a little patience: crisp skin, translucent flaky flesh, with sautéed peppers, courgette and cherry tomatoes. It works as well with a good frozen fillet as with a fresh one.

Baked Sea Bass Fillets in Foil

The gentlest way I know to cook a fillet. Baked Sea Bass Fillets in Foil seals one skin-on fillet in a parchment and foil parcel with lemon, cherry tomatoes, capers and white wine, then bakes it for 15 minutes. It is sea bass en papillote for one, with boiled baby potatoes alongside, and the juices in the parcel make the sauce.

Pan-Roasted Sea Bass with King Prawns

This one comes from my son Danny. Danny's Pan Roasted Sea Bass with King Prawns and Salsa Verde is a skin-on fillet crisped in butter, king prawns on top and a sharp salsa verde of parsley, capers, garlic and lemon spooned over everything. Ten minutes from pan to plate, and the boulangère potatoes on the side are worth the hour in the oven.

Whole Sea Bass

A whole fish is the dramatic way to serve sea bass. Salt Baked Sea Bass buries a whole lubina in a crust of salt and egg white, bakes it, and lifts the skin away with the crust when you crack it open at the table. A probe thermometer takes the guesswork out of it.

Sea bream is a close cousin and gets the same treatment in Baked Sea Bream (Dorada al Horno): baked whole over potatoes, onions and garlic with white wine and olive oil, with garlic prawns spooned over the top. That recipe works just as well with lubina.

Buying Sea Bass: Fresh or Frozen

Fresh sea bass should be stiff, with bright eyes and a clean smell of the sea. When my lubina came from Marta's store it was recién muerto, and it made every recipe easier. A good frozen fillet is also a perfectly good choice: thaw it slowly in the fridge overnight so the flesh keeps its texture. My guide to fresh vs frozen fish explains how to tell the difference.

Whichever you buy, skin-on fillets give you the crisp skin, and a fishmonger will scale and pin-bone them for you.

How to Cook Sea Bass: Notes from My Kitchen

• Dry the skin. Pat the fish completely dry with kitchen paper and season with salt just before cooking, so the skin crisps instead of steaming.
• Pan-searing. Use a hot pan, lay the fillet skin-side down, press gently for 30 seconds and cook for 3 to 4 minutes before turning for a minute on the flesh side.
• Use a probe. I take a fillet baked in a parcel out at 57°C and a whole fish in a salt crust at 58°C. Sea bass overcooks quickly, so go by the probe, not the clock.
• Keep the bones. The head and bones of a whole fish make a good start for fish stock. My Easy Fish Stock shows how.

If you enjoy these sea bass recipes, you can buy me a coffee ☕ on Ko-fi.

Footnote

These sea bass recipes are part of my Inland Fish & Seafood hub, and the Spanish ones also appear in my Spanish Recipes collection.
Find more recipes and food adventures here.
Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures – The Flexible Chef