This Sea Bass with Chorizo, Parsnips, Capers and Rosemary recipe has all the ingredients for a spectacular Christmas feast. The brilliant Gill Meller takes our whole Wild Sea Bass and turns it into an absolute festive showstopper and makes the most of its incredible texture and flavour.

Sea Bass has a classy reputation for many years, it has been featured on the menu of the best restaurants and is beloved by home cooks. However, this demand has driven the intensification of sea bass, and often you'll find on the fishmonger's slab or served up in a restaurant is farmed sea bass - an ecological nightmare.

Our Wild Sea Bass is sustainably line caught by our Dorset-based husband and wife team of Ian and Annie Gilbert. Each fish is meticulously prepared and ready for you to cook with ease.

Ingredients

2

Line caught sea bass about 500g each
4

Parsnips
200g

Chorizo sausage
1

Lemon
2 tablespoons

Capers
2 sprigs

Rosemary
3 tablespoons

Olive oil
20g

Butter
A good pinch

Salt and pepper

BUY AVAILABLE INGREDIENTS

Method

Peel the parsnips, then cut each one from top to bottom into four to six lengths. If they have fibrous cores, you can cut these out.
Arrange the parsnips around the over a large flat baking tray.
Cut the chorizo in to chunky pieces and scatter over the parsnips.
Cut nice wide thin strips of lemon zest and tuck these around the parsnips. Tear over the rosemary and trickle over the olive oil.
Place the roasting tray in the oven and cook for 20 minutes, then remove and, using some tongs, carefully turn the parsnips and nestle the fish onto the tray, dot over the butter and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Sprinkle over the capers and return the tray to the oven and cook for a further 15–20 minutes, or until the fish is is cooked through and the parsnips are lovely and golden and charred in places.
To check to see whether the fish is cooked, use the point of a knife to lift a flake or two of meat from the bone. If it comes away easily it’s ready to serve.
Squeeze over the lemon before serving with a green salad and some good bread and butter.