Last Updated on May 31, 2024
Have you got an air fryer yet? I confess mine was bought when my brother started to gloat about making chips in the one he had. There are several styles of air fryers – mine is the Ninja flip 101 – something that looks rather like a small toaster oven – but gets up to 230C in less than 2 minutes. It’s great for making meals for one or two like this recipe for baked sea bass fillets. And, I’m developing a hybrid cooking style using a mixture of a hob, air fryer, microwave and pressure cooker to ensure that I’m doing the best I can to save money on energy bills. This recipe, for example, could be made entirely in the air fryer but that wouldn’t produce the best result and nor would it be the most energy efficient.
Parcooking the potato in the microwave is definitely the cheapest way to get the dish started. I peeled one potato and sliced it into 1/4cm rounds. They all went in a Tupperware dish with a couple of tablespoons of water and were cooked at 800w for 5 minutes. In the meantime, I trimmed, cleaned and sliced up a leek. The potatoes were drained and put on one side
My cast iron skillet from Samuel Groves is the perfect size for the Ninja flip, but it also works very well on the hob. A tablespoon of oil in the pan was warmed through before adding the sliced leeks and potatoes and seasoning the whole thing well with salt and pepper. I cooked that mixture over low heat for about 5 minutes before adding a glass of dry white wine and raising the heat a bit so that the mixture simmered gently. Once the wine had reduced down by half, I put the sea bass fillets skin side up on top and put the whole dish into the Air Fryer at 170C on the ‘roast’ setting for 8 minutes.
The end result was beautifully cooked fish (I didn’t try to turn the fillets because I wanted crispy skin) and tender confit vegetables.
It’s a very simple dish to make and I think it would work well with other flat fish fillets (lemon sole for instance). Of course, you could pan-fry the fish, but using the air fryer to finish the dish is a good way to get a crisp skin and to minimise the risk of overcooking the fillets while ensuring that all the juices are kept. And, it’s truly energy efficient. I’d recommend starting root vegetables like potatoes in the microwave – it’s by far the cheapest way to make a jacket potato for example. But you miss the benefit of that lovely crisp skin you get from an oven or air-fryer jacket. Hybrid cooking is not just a compromise, the microwaving process also softens the potato skin so that if you rub it with a little oil and salt it will crisp up in the air-fryer, leaving the centre nice and fluffy – a better result than if you’d cooked it entirely in the oven.
Here’s a printable recipe that you can try for yourself. Please do let me know if you have a go – and enjoy!
Baked Sea Bass Fillet with confit leeks and potatoes
Equipment
- 1 air fryer optional (use your oven if you do not have a suitable air fryer)
- 1 cast iron skillet
- 1 microwave optional (par-boil the potatoes on the hob if you do not have a microwave)
Ingredients
- 1 large potato
- 2 sea bass fillets
- 1 large leek
- 1 tbsp olive oil blend or sunflower oil
- 1 glass dry white wine or vermouth
- 10 grams butter
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Peel the potato and slice into 1/4cm rounds
- Place in a microwave safe container with a little water.
- Microwave for 5 minutes at 800w or for 6 minutes at 600w, then drain and put to one side
- Trim, clean and slice the leek. I cut mine in half lengthwise, then into slices of about 1cm
- Warm the oil in your skillet
- Add the leeks and cook over a low heat for 5 minutes
- Add the drained potato slices and continue to cook for a few minutes, then season well and pour in the wine
- Raise the temperature of the hob and bring the mixture to simmering point
- Reduce the wine down by 50% or so
- Season the sea bass fillets and place them skin side up on the potato and leek mixture. If you like, spray the skin with a little oil
- Put the dish in the air fryer at 170c on roast setting
- Cook for 8 minutes or till the fish is cooked through and the skin is just crisp
- Finish with butter and serve with lemon on the side and a steamed green vegetable
Loved this recipe – thank you, Fiona!
Thanks! it’s so nice to get some feedback!
Just tried this and it is delicious. Thank you for sharing. I will definitely cook this again 😋
Glad you enjoyed!