Seabass with Skordalia and Pine Nut Vinaigrette

This pan fried seabass is served with a pine nut, green olive and parsley vinaigrette, and what looks like a standard mash, but is actually Skordalia –  a Greek potato dip enriched with garlic, egg yolk and olive oil. We learnt this dish during our cooking course Leiths cooking back in 2016 and we think it is a great combination of flavours!

This recipe is from Leith’s “How to Cook” using seabass instead of pollock and dry white wine instead of verjuice.

Ingredients (serves four)

Fish:
Four seabass fillets
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to deason

Skordalia:
Two large floury potatoes
2 garlic cloves
1 egg yolk
1/4 lemon
75-100ml olive oil
1-2 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2-4 tablespoon warm water (if necessary to losen the Skordalia)

Vinaigrette:
50g pine buts
1/2 shallot
2 green olives
1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley
75ml extra virgin olive oil
2-3tbsp dry white wine

Method

1. Peel the potatoes and cut into 2cm dice. Place in a cold pan of water and bring to the boil. Cook for 8-10 minutes until a knife easily penetrates the potato. Meanwhile, peel and crush the garlic clove and mix with the egg yolk.
2. To make the vinaigrette, lightly toast the pine nuts over a medium heat in a pan. Finely chop the shallot and olives. Mix all the vinaigrette ingredients together and check for seasoning, then leave aside.
3. Once the potatoes are cooked, leave to steam dry in the pan. When cooled, mash or put through a potato ricer. Add the egg yolk, garic, and lemon juice. Beat in the olive oil and season. It should be soft and spoonable. Add some water if it needs loosening.
4. Dry the fish skin, and season with salt and pepper. Place skin side down in a medium pan with some olive oil. You may need to hold down with a fish slice to stop the fish curling for the first 30 seconds. Allow the skin to crisp nicely. Try not to move the fish until the skin is crispy. Once crispy, turn off the heat and turn the fish around skin side up. It will cook with the residual heat for around 1 minute.
5. Plate up as per the image and enjoy!