Sea bass in a salt crust with potato and tomato gratin

Dutch cuisine has a pretty terrible reputation. At RIJKS* restaurant, top chef Joris Bijdendijk shows that you can make fantastic dishes with Dutch produce. And that is exactly what he does in his book, too. It contains old family recipes, as well as recipes for dishes that Joris serves at RIJKS.

This dish is guaranteed to impress. And it’s much easier than you think.

Method

Start with the gratin. Remove the tops from the tomatoes and peel them by immersing them in boiling water for a few seconds, until the skin comes loose. Rinse them under cold water. Cut the tomatoes into rough pieces and cook them with a splash of water until puréed. Pour the purée into an ovenproof dish.

Wash the outside of the potatoes and cut them into thin slices. Do not wash the slices, and keep them pressed closely together. Place the potatoes on the tomato purée. Season with pepper and sea salt, drizzle with a little olive oil and place bruised garlic cloves on top. Bake the gratin in the oven at 180 °C for 45 minutes. Check whether the potatoes are cooked by piercing them with a skewer. If you feel no resistance, they are done.

Salt crust
Using the pulse setting, mix all the spices and herbs in a food processor until the pieces are the same size as the sea salt crystals. The recipe also works well without spices, and you can put your own spin on the mixture by using other dried herbs. Mix the spices and herbs with the sea salt.

The sea bass
Make sure the sea bass is clean inside and snip off the fish’s fins. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the peel from ½ a lemon and place it in the fish’s cavity, along with a sprig of thyme. Place a generous handful of the sea salt mixture on a baking sheet or in an ovenproof dish large enough for the sea bass to fit lengthwise. Place the sea bass on top, cover it with the sea salt mixture and press it down firmly. Bake the fish in the oven at 200 °C for 16 minutes, then let it rest for 10 minutes in a warm spot in the kitchen. Remove the sea salt and the fish skin, then fillet the fish. Carefully remove the fillet from the fish and place it on a plate with a generous serving of potato gratin and, if desired, some extra olive oil drizzled over the fish.

Bijdendijk. A kitchen for the Low Countries.
Joris Bijdendijk
€ 39.95
Nijgh & van Ditmar