Sea Bass with Fennel and Sweet-Sour Rice

⏳ Time

30 minutes

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

If you can't find fennel, dill can be an alternative. However, dill is certainly not in the same league as fennel. Although they are related, dill is, so to speak, the poor cousin. Dill lacks that delicate anise aroma and sweetish flavor. It is coarser and more overpowering than fennel.

Ingredients

Sea Bass - 6 pieces
Fennel - 2 pieces
Lemon - 4 pieces
Garlic - 10 cloves
Fresh basil leaves - 4 spoons
Olive Oil - 1 fl oz
Raw cane sugar - 1.8 oz
Arborio rice - 17.6 oz
Salt - to taste
Ground Black Pepper - to taste

Step by Step guide

Step 1

Clean the fish (small portion-sized perch weighing about 400 grams each) and stuff each perch's belly with finely chopped fennel and a wedge of lemon.

Step 2

Mix olive oil with salt, pepper, and crushed garlic, and spread this mixture over all the fish. Wrap each fish in parchment paper, much like the way the characters in 'The Godfather' used to do in the story about the Sicilian letter.

Step 3

Preheat the oven to 302°F and place the fish inside for twenty-five minutes.

Step 4

Meanwhile, in a deep skillet, sauté the finely chopped garlic in the remaining olive oil. As soon as the garlic begins to darken, squeeze the juice of two lemons into the skillet, wait for it to come to a boil, and then add the Arborio rice. Stirring, cook the rice for about a minute, allowing it to absorb the lemon juice and garlic. Then pour in a liter of water mixed with sugar. Cook over low heat for twelve minutes, stirring occasionally.

Step 5

After twelve minutes, add chopped basil and the zest of two lemons to the skillet, and stir. Cover with a lid and turn off the heat. After a few minutes, when the perch is ready, serve it with rice and a good Ligurian white wine.