Sea Bream with Fennel and Blood Orange Salad

Sea Bream is a firm-fleshed white fish.

Its succulent flesh is ideal for grilling, baking or frying.

Red snapper or sea bass make good substitutes.

Fennel goes well with most fish.

Here the blood orange helps to break into the sweetness of the fish and the aniseed flavour from the fennel,

giving a warm and hearty taste to the dish.

Ingredients:
For the orange dressing
3 blood oranges, 1 peeled and segmented
zest and juice of 2 blood oranges
30ml white wine vinegar
100ml olive oil
fennel fronds (see below)

For the fennel and onion salad
2 fennel bulbs, thinly sliced, fronds reserved
1 red onion, peeled, sliced
75g black olives, stones removed, quartered length ways
30ml olive oil
30ml white wine vinegar

For the sea bream
45ml vegetable oil
2 whole sea bream, fillets removed

Method:
For the orange dressing
Heat the orange juice in a small saucepan and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the volume of the liquid has reduced by two-thirds.
Stir in the zest, set aside to cool and then leave to chill in the fridge.
Put the orange segments into an airtight, heatproof plastic bag.
Place the bag into a small saucepan of boiling water for 10 seconds.
Carefully remove the bag from the water and gently press apart the segments with your fingers to make orange 'pearls'.
Add the orange pearls to the chilled, reduced orange juice.
Stir in the white wine vinegar, olive oil and half of the fennel fronds. Set aside.

For the fennel and onion salad
Place the sliced fennel and red onion into a bowl of iced water and set aside for 10 minutes. Drain, pat dry using kitchen paper and place into a large bowl.
Add two-thirds of the olives, the olive oil, white wine vinegar and remaining fennel fronds to the bowl and season, to taste, with salt.
Stir until well combined and set aside.

For the sea bream
Score the sea bream 4-5 times on the skin side and season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the fish, skin-side down, for 1-2 minutes on each side. Remove the fish from the pan and set aside to rest for two minutes.
To serve, drizzle some dressing around the edge of each of four serving plates.
Place a sea bream fillet, skin-side up, in the middle of the plate and top with the fennel and onion salad.
Scatter over the reserved olive pieces.

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