This the only dish in my repertoire that I created from the description of another dish someone else had eaten and told me about. Usually, I have the benefit of eating the dish personally and recreating it to my own recollection, or I have the recipe outright. So, in essence, this is a recipe by hearsay.
My wife used to take an annual junket with her mother to Las Vegas and spend four days palling around, shooting craps, seeing the Vegas shows, eating in nice restaurants and shooting more craps. These trips occurred with some regularity throughout the 1990s, as Vegas was reinventing itself and attracting some quality culinary talent with upscale eateries.
I don't remember from which of these restaurants that she shared details with me about this dish, but she told me about a sea bass dish she had eaten that was served on mashed potatoes with a seasoned broth. Intrigued, I began experimenting with the idea, and this is ultimately what I came up with. I really don't recall if I got accolades for getting the recipe close to what she ate in Las Vegas, but I got accolades nonetheless for a dish that's pretty darn good.
Although this recipe is made with real mashed potatoes, it would probably work just as well with my low carb version of cauliflower "Mock Garlic Mashed Potatoes." Click here to see that recipe. In that case, I would substitute wasabi for the garlic.
As far as I know, the wasabi addition to the mashed potatoes was my innovation to the intended recipe. A word or two about wasabi. First, what is it? An accountant with whom I used to work claimed that wasabi was a Japanese word for "very hot green shit." Although colloquially expressed, he was essentially correct.
Wasabi is best know as a condiment for sushi, and it is a cousin of horseradish indigenous only to Japan. It is difficult to cultivate and for that reason, very expensive and very difficult to get. Like horseradish, the heat from wasabi tends to come from vapors in the back of the pallet and the "burn" is short lived, unlike the kind of heat you get from chili pepper, which tends to linger on the tongue, sometimes for unbearable lengths of time.
We don't see true wasabi in this country. Even wasabi powder is really horseradish. The most popular and easily found wasabi is in a paste form from a Japanese import company.
Most of what we get in this country, including the S&B product identified above. is a blend of horseradish and mustard with green food coloring. Frankly, I suspect that the subtlety of true wasabi versus this more commercially available and affordable product would make little difference on the pallet when used merely as a background ingredient to a bowl of mashed potatoes.
Technically, this is not en papillote which is a French cooking term wherein food, usually fish, is added to herbs and seasonings which are then sealed in parchment paper that has been folded and semi-sealed like an envelope. The food therefore is steamed in its own juices and infused with a limitless variety of flavors. I don't generally have parchment paper lying around the kitchen, so I use aluminum foil instead. But cooking sea bass en aluminium just doesn't sound very good, so I am taking poetic license to use the en papillote moniker for this dish.
Finally, I used beef stock to make the broth, and I know that sounds weird with a fish dish. I have often thought about using a fish stock instead, but somehow, I think that would throw the balance of flavors way off. The subtle buttery flavor of the sea bass, infused with the herbs and veggies, seems to bounce off of the heartiness of the broth, which then stands up well to the horseradish twang of the mashed potatoes. It ends up being a concert of unusual ingredients that seems to play together very well.
You will also need beef or veal demi-glace for this recipe. Demi-glace is a rich brown sauce in French cuisine used by itself or as a base for other sauces. The term comes from the French word glacé, which when used in reference to a sauce means icing or glaze. You can buy a concentrated version of this from Williams Sonoma.
Ingredients
For the sea bass
1 lb Chilean sea bass, filleted and cut into two portions
1/2 small red bell pepper, cut into julienne strips
1/2 small green onion, cut into julienne strips
2 twigs fresh oregano
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp dry white wine
pepper to taste
Ingredients
For the broth
2 cups beef stock (like, Swansons or Kitchen Basics)
1 tbsp demi-glace (like, Williams-Sonoma)
1/2 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp garlic
1/2 stick butter
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Ingredients
For the wasabi mashed potatoes
5-6 medium sized Russet potatoes, peeled and cut into even sized pieces
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp wasabi paste (like, S&B)
salt and pepper to taste
The Recipes
First, make the broth:
Melt the butter and add the olive oil in a sauce pan over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms and garlic, and saute until the mushrooms collapse and brown. Add the beef stock and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the demi-glace and melt it into the sauce with a whisk. reduce heat to a low simmer and allow the sauce to reduce by half.
Next, start the potatoes:
Put your potato pieces in a kettle of cold salted water. Bring to a boil and allow the potatoes to cook until fork tender, about 30-40 minutes.
Now, prepare the main event:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lay out two sheets of aluminum foil to accommodate the sea bass. Place your fish in the center and put the julienne of red bell pepper, green onion and sprig of fresh oregano on top. Drizzle with olive oil and white wine.
Give a couple of grinds of fresh black pepper, but add no salt. Salt at this point will leach too much water out of the fish. The wine will add some saltiness to the fish and if it requires more, you can add it after serving.
Now, tent the foil, leaving a space inside the packet above the ingredients. You want to leave room for the steam to surround the fish and infused it with all the flavors you've added to the packet. Make sure you properly seal the foil tent by folding and crimping the edges.
Put your foil packets on a sheet pan or cookie sheet in case they spring leaks, and put the pan in the pre-heated oven for thirty minutes.
Now, finish the potatoes and assemble the dish:
When the potatoes are fork tender, drain well. Fold in the butter and allow it to melt while the potatoes remain uncovered, steaming off additional moisture. When the butter has melted, add the cream and the wasabi, and either mash your potatoes with a potato masher, or whip them with an electric mixer. Check the flavor and add salt and black pepper if needed.
Remove the foil packets from the oven, and carefully open them, keeping your face away from any rising steam. You will find that some liquid has accumulated in each packet. Pour this liquid into your saucepan with the mushrooms and broth, and stir it in well.
Remove and discard the sprigs of oregano from the sea bass.
To serve this dish, put a helping of the wasabi mashed potatoes into a low and wide soup bowl or pasta bowl. Place the sea bass with the red bell peppers and green onions on top of the potatoes.
Spoon the broth and mushrooms around the fish on top of the potatoes (but not on top of the fish), and serve.
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