Sea bass with mushroom and fennel duxelle

Method

1. For the fennel and mushroom duxelle: place the fennel, mushrooms and chopped onion in a food processor and blend to a paste.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the mushroom mixture and cook gently, stirring occasionally, until all the liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated. Season to taste.

3. Stir in the wine and cream, and continue cooking over a moderate heat. Stir occasionally until the liquid has reduced and been absorbed. The end result should be a fairly thick, but slightly sloppy, sauce. This will take about 20 minutes.

4. For the sea bass: pre-heat the grill to high.

5. Score the skin of the sea bass fillets, being careful not to cut too deeply into the flesh.

6. Season the flesh side of the fish, then put skin side up on a baking tray or grill pan. Brush the scored skin
with olive oil and blow torch until the skin is crisp.

7. Transfer to the pre-heated grill and leave for around 4 minutes or until cooked through.

8. For the beurre blanc: place the shallots, wine vinegar, lemon juice and white wine in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and reduce the liquid until you have about 1 tablespoon of liquid.

9. Add the cold water and reduce again to around 1 tablespoon. Turn down to a low heat and slowly whisk in the butter, about 25g at a time. The sauce will emulsify (thicken and lighten in colour).

10. Once all the butter has been added, remove the pan from the heat, then pass the sauce through a sieve into another saucepan. Add the chopped chives.

11. Serve each fillet of bass on a bed of duxelle and drizzle around the butter sauce.

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Ingredients

For the fennel and mushroom duxelle

1 large fennel bulb, roughly chopped
350g field mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
50g salted Butter
150ml Red wine
275ml double cream

For the sea bass

2x fresh Sea bass, descaled, filleted and pin bones removed
Olive oil, for brushing

For the buerre blanc

2 Shallots, peeled and finely sliced
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
4 tbsp White wine
1 tbsp cold water
225g salted Butter, cut into cubes
1 tbsp Chives, very finely chopped

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