W4/Meal 2: Beet his ass, Seabass!

Mike named this post and evidently it has something to do with Dumb & Dumber, a quality film I have not yet had the pleasure of viewing. He chuckled quietly to himself for about four blocks after coming up with this, though, so we'll go with it.

It seems like every meal that uses beets involves roasting them first, and since we're (still!) in the middle of a heatwave, I was not so excited about firing up my oven for an hour. I learned my lesson with the zucchini.

So 10 days later, those magnificent beets were starting to look a little --um-- beat, and the ziplock bag full of beet greens was still unused.

I found this intriguing recipe that would make use of both ingredients, but, of course, the first step was to roast the beets. Desperate for an alternative, I did a little poking around on the interweb and was delighted to find this-- a handy guide for roasting beets in the slowcooker.

I used an appliance timer to turn my slowcooker on at about 5pm, so that when I finished my knife skills class at Brooklyn Kitchen Labs (note: totally awesome), I arrived home to find perfectly cooked, hot, squishy beets, and I was ready to proceed with my recipe.


Pan-Seared Sea Bass with Beet Sauce and Beet Greens

Ingredients:
1 pound red beets with greens (about 3 medium)
1 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon minced peeled fresh gingerroot
4 sea bass fillets (about 1/2 pound each)
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

Directions:
1] Slip off skins and stems of roasted beets
2] In a blender or food processor puree beets with water, soy sauce, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste until smooth. Transfer sauce to a small saucepan and keep warm, covered
3] Cut greens into 1/2-inch-wide slices and chop stems. In a 12-inch nonstick skillet heat 1 1/2 tablespoons butter over moderate heat until foam subsides and cook gingerroot, stirring, 30 seconds. Add greens and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes. Season greens with salt and pepper and keep warm, covered.
4] Pat sea bass fillets dry. Sprinkle fillets with coriander and season with salt and pepper. In a large nonstick skillet heat remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons butter over moderately high heat until foam subsides and sauté fillets, skin sides down, pressing gently with a spatula if fillets curl, until skin is golden, about 3 minutes. Turn fish over and sauté about 2 minutes more, or until just cooked through.
5] Serve sea bass with beet greens and sauce.

***

I omitted the coriander (obvs) and used two giant steaks of seabass-- a good three inches thick. To compensate, I increased the cooking time to about 5 minutes on the first side and 4 minutes on the second. I served the fish over the greens on a bed of jasmine rice, all topped with the technicolor sauce.

Verdict: Smash success... for me, anyway. The flavors, textures, and colors were so interesting that I danced in my chair with my delight. Mike didn't care for the taste of the greens, which I should have seen coming-- he's generally not a fan of ginger. We both agreed that the seabass was "restaurant good"-- cooked perfectly and sooo flavorful-- and the sauce was beautiful. The beets didn't seem to lend that strong of a flavor to the dish, but the color more than made up for it. This would be a perfect entree for a dinner party-- simple, easy to time correctly, and impressively gorgeous.