Mediterranean Sea with added Bass

I went flat out at work on Friday having woken extra early to cadge the bus and train in which gave me the opportunity to make some early headway at the office, as well as allowing me to have a tasty beer or two after working hours had finished. The reason for the post-work beer was it was an old school friend's birthday. He is currently a student at one of the universities in the city where I work and he had decided on a night out on the Friday.

We went in one pub called the University Arms, which I had last drunk in as a student when I studied at the university myself nearly a decade earlier. I'm not a great one for looking back these days, however the walk up to the University Arms was an exception to this rule, as heading towards the pub I felt a little like the ghost of a student from semesters that had long since vanished into history. However when we entered the pub through the double doors I felt the intervening decade slip away and the memories of afternoons in there drinking after lectures and seminars came stampeding back to the front of my mind. The other punters in the pub were an eclectic bunch from fresh-faced youngsters who had not even finished school when I was last a student, a mature student with a laptop and a pint of something hoppy and a bloke in a tweed jacket and fedora combo who looked stoned.

Beer, whisky and chilli flowed through the late afternoon and early evening and during the celebrations individuals from key stages of my friend's life were present at different times; his parents and gran who were all there at the beginning and have always been there, two people from his original university days in the noughties, someone from his current degree and me from his schooldays. We spent plenty of time reflecting on nearly twenty-two years of drink, decadence, walking encyclopaedias and comedy before I barrelled off into the night suitably stuffed with alcohol as I zig-zagged home to my bed via the train and the bus.

Yesterday morning I woke with a slightly thick head that was cured by high-fibre cereal, boiled eggs and paracetamol. After a day of pottering and avoiding the heavy rain showers when walking the dog I settled on a suitable evening meal and the recent hot weather made me think of a Mediterranean recipe, which was roasted Sea Bass with vegetables. 

The album of choice was a throwback to the 1980s in the shape of Tears for Fears' excellent Songs from the Big Chair, containing the brilliant singles "Shout" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" amongst others plus the expressive and powerful "Head Over Heels" and "Listen" not to mention a photo of the duo sporting fashionable (for the time) mullets. With all these obvious plusses what's not to like about the record?

The first job in preparation of the meal was to take a red onion, peel it and then slice it widthways. Next I diced an orange pepper and five cloves of garlic. I added them all to my Le Cresceut dish and fried them lightly in sunflower oil and black pepper with the lid on the Le Cresceut for about half an hour. The reason I did this was because although I was going to subsequently roast them with the Sea Bass there was a risk, if I did not pre cook them, of the vegetables being too crunchy and getting burnt in the oven.

In the meantime I sliced a whole lemon widthways into six or so slices and cut eight cherry tomatoes in half. Once the vegetables in the Le Cresceut were cooked I used them plus the lemon and tomato as the bed on which the Sea Bass was to lie. I was able to make this happen by taking an ovenproof dish and lining the bottom with foil onto which I poured sunflower oil and then spread the lemons, tomatoes and the vegetables from the Le Cresceut on the dish evenly together with a sliced up chilli I had grown previously.

Next I put two Sea Bass fillets on top of the dish and garnished the fillets with sliced green olives and sprigs of Rosemary and Thyme from my garden. I cooked it all on Gas Mark 6 ( or 200 degrees for electric ovens and 180 degrees for electric fan ovens) for half an hour. When I removed it from the oven I was greeted with the flavoursome smells of Thyme, Rosemary and Lemon. The pre-cooking of the vegetables was a sensible move as they were soft because the sunflower oil had kept them from burning and becoming crunchy. The Sea Bass flesh was tender and full of protein, a perfect meal to revitalise me after Friday's excitement and the meal was rounded off by a side of steamed new potatoes.

Finished off with the new potatoes.

The bed that they lie on- the fillets on top of the lemons, tomatoes and the vegetables.