“The combined flavour of sesame oil and soy sauce is perfect with chives, ginger and spring onions.”

^{–Judith Hann, Herbs}

This is a simple, fresh tasting, fish dish from the East. I generally use sea bass, but slightly meatier fish such as cod or halibut also do well. You can even use chicken.

Try it with Basmati, and stir fried pak choi (use the same frying pan, and fry the pak choi, quartered vertically, in a little rapeseed oil and sesame oil).

Baked Asian sea bass recipe

Serves 3

Ingredients

• 250g/9 oz (2 x 125g packets) shiitake mushrooms
• 300g/10 oz sea bass fillets – ideally without their skin
• 8 spring onions
• About a couple of cm/1”of ginger
• A few stems each of coriander and chives
• 1 small, mild, red chilli
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• Juice and zest of a lime
• 1 tbsp sesame oil plus a little for oiling the fish
• Rapeseed oil for frying

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
2. Pour a little oil into a large frying pan and get it hot.
3. Meanwhile slice the shiitake mushrooms roughly. Add to the oil, stir and fry.
4. Take off the skin from the fillets if you can and oil them with a little sesame oil.
5. Spread the mushrooms over a shallow, oven-proof dish.
6. Lay the fish fillets over the mushroom bed.
7. Peel the ginger and cut it into very thin sticks. Scatter over the fish.
8. Cut the chilli in half vertically and deseed it. Then slice horizontally. Scatter over fish.
9. Snip over the spring onions, including about an inch of the green.
10. Mix the sauces, the sesame oil, and the lime juice and zest together in a small bowl and pour over.
11. Bake for ten minutes, until the fish is cooked through (no longer opaque).
12. Snip over the herbs and serve.