Sea Bass, Swede & Chorizo with Wild Garlic Chimmichurri

I thought up this recipe at 2.30am - I think it actually woke me up! I had already planned to have a lovely crispy skinned, pan friend piece of sea bass, but the swede, sweet potato and chorizo sounded interesting. And I love Chimichurri which is an Argentinian green sauce usually made with parsley and oregano. I had some wild garlic leaves that needed to be used up, so why not? And it certainly looks impressive enough for a dinner party without too much work!

For the sea bass:

I rarely like frying food but sea bass, in particular, is lovely pan fried as you get a beautiful crispy skin. I don't know about you, but flabby undercooked skin is something I would give to one of the cats. Cooked like this is delicious. All you do is cut little slices in the skin (as above), season with salt and pepper and fry a tablespoon of oil skin side down. The whole time (about 5 minutes). It doesn't need to be turned over. Spoon the hot oil over the white flesh towards the end of cooking and when you take it out of the pan the skin will be lovely and crisp.

For the swede:

Half a head of swede
1 sweet potato
1 small cooking chorizo (about 80g), chopped
25g butter

Peel and chop the swede and potato and boil until tender. Crush with a fork - don't mash till smooth, you want it very roughly mashed. Add the butter with a generous helping of black pepper and stir through. Fry the chorizo in a small dry pan, there should be enough fat in the chorizo to cook it without oil. Add the crispy chorizo to the swede/potato crush and stir through. Serve in a chefs ring with the fish on top of it..

For the sauce:

A large handful wild garlic leaves
1 small clove garlic
1 shallot, chopped
1/4 tsp. chilli flakes
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 tsp sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
3-4 tbsp. olive oil

In a hand blender, blitz the leaves, garlic, shallot and chilli flakes until finely chopped. Add the lemon juice, vinegar and enough oil to make a loose sauce. Chill until needed.

The sauce can be used with any fish or meat. I am looking forward to trying it with a nice fillet steak. Or maybe some crispy chicken..