Wild Striped Bass with Smoked Tomato Vinaigrette
Spanish salt cod crepes
Adapted from Bobby Flay: Chapter One
Wild striped bass caught off the coast of Montauk, Long Island, is such a beautiful fish. It's clean-tasting and definitely has some oceanic flavor-but its meaty texture is what I love most about it. Cold-smoking beefsteak tomatoes is one of my favorite things to do in the summer, and here I use the smoked tomatoes as a base for a fresh salsa. I use a smoking gun to do it, so the technique might not be accessible for everyone.
Ingredients
- 5 beefsteak tomatoes, halved crosswise, cored, and seeded
- Kosher salt
- ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon neutral oil, such as avocado or canola
- 3 tablespoons extra-fine applewood chips
- ¼ cup champagne vinegar
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 garlic clove, chopped to a paste
- Freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- ¼ cup sliced scallions
- 2 teaspoons pureed canned chipotle in adobo
- Zest and juice of 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 (6-ounce) skin-on wild striped bass fillets, 1 inch thick, at room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- Place the tomatoes in a baking dish, cut-side up.
Sprinkle them with salt and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the neutral oil. Place the baking dish in the oven and roast until they are completely soft and the skins are starting to wrinkle around the cut edges, about 1 hour.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
- Place plastic wrap over the baking dish. Following the manufacturer's instructions, light the wood chips in a smoking gun and turn the gun on. Lift one corner of the plastic wrap from the dish and slip the tube from the smoking gun into the dish, then secure the wrap around the dish to seal in the smoke. Fill the dish with smoke, then quickly remove the tube and seal the plastic wrap on the corner to keep the smoke inside the baking dish.
Allow the tomatoes to absorb the smoke. The tomatoes are ready once the smoke dissipates, about 10 minutes.
- Coarsely chop the tomatoes and set aside 2 cups for the salsa. To a blender, add the remaining chopped smoked tomatoes, vinegar, parsley, mustard, honey, and garlic. Blend until smooth, then, with the motor running, slowly add 1/2 cup of the neutral oil and blend until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. (You can make this up to 4 hours in advance and store it, covered, in the refrigerator.)
- In a medium bowl, combine the reserved 2 cups chopped tomatoes, the cilantro, scallions, chipotle, lime zest and juice, and olive oil. Stir to combine and season with salt and pepper. Set aside to allow the flavors to meld.
- Score the fish by making three diagonal cuts in the skin, taking care not to cut into the flesh. Pat the skin dry with a paper towel. In a large sauté pan, heat the remaining 1/4 cup neutral oil over high heat until it begins to shimmer. Season the fish on both sides with salt and pepper. Gently place the fillets skin-side down in the pan (be careful, because the oil will splatter). With a fish spatula, apply gentle pressure on the fillets to stop the skin from curling, holding each one down until it lies flat on its own (this allows the skin to crisp evenly), about 20 seconds each. Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook the fish until the flesh just turns opaque and the skin is crisp and golden brown, about 5 minutes. Flip the fillets and cook for 2 minutes, or until the fillets feel firm to touch.
- On each of four large plates, plate 3 heaping tablespoons of tomato salsa in a mound. Spoon some vinaigrette around each mound. Place a striped bass fillet skin-side up on the salsa and serve immediately.
Notes
- I would serve this with some roast potatoes (and maybe some sauteed spinach) as a main course
- I have a Traeger, so I would just cook/smoke the tomatoes using that
- When I made this, the tomatoes were too runny, so next time I would either de-seed before roasting or drain them after. Also, the smoke is barely detectable, so OK to skip