How to BBQ Sea Bass

BBQ Sea BAss with Fennel and Clementine©Kevin Ashton 2023
BBQ Sea Bass with Fennel and Clementines©Kevin Ashton 2023

People often ask me how to cook seafood on a barbecue without it sticking or falling to pieces?  So for my recent Barbecue Masterclass a created a video that gives you lots of tips on perfecting your seafood grilling skills.  I show readers how to cook a sea bass in a basket but also how to cook a whole directly on the grill. It is easy once you know how just watch the video.

The recipe is included in this post plus a link to the video which you can use as a cook-a-long tool.

The combination of fennel and orange with whole fish is a very Mediterranean flavour so why learn how to recreate your holiday memories on your barbecue?

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 whole gutted sea bass 300 grams each

1 Large Fennel bulb

4 Clementine’s (easy peelers) *

2 Tbsp Olive oil

Sauce

4 ½Tbsp Mayonnaise

Clementine juice of (1 Clementine)*

Fennel leaves for decoration

½ Tbsp Fennel seeds

Method:

  1. It is important to keep all trim from the Clementine’s.
  2. Slice 2 Clementine’s (skin on) into thick slices and reserve.
  3. Cut the peel from 1 easy peeler and slice into 4 even slices to reserve for decoration.
  4. Squeeze the juice from the remaining 1 Clementine and reserve.
  5. Slice the fennel bulb in to 4 thick slices. Chop any remaining fennel trim in very small dice. Blanch the slices of fennel in boiling water for 3 minutes then remove fennel and cool down.  In the same saucepan you blanched the fennel slices in, cook the diced fennel until tender then drain and reserve.
  6. Grind the fennel seeds in a mortar and pestle to make them well crushed.
  7. Add the Clementine juice and leave for 30 minutes for the flavours to mingle.
  8. Strain the fennel and juice mixture into the mayonnaise, stirring well.
  9. Now add the well drained diced fennel to the mayonnaise and season lightly with salt and pepper.
  10. Score each sea bass 3 or 4 times on each side to help them cook.
  11. Brush each sea bass with olive oil on both sides and season with salt and pepper.
  12. Stuff each seabass with 3 slices of unpeeled Clementine’s.
  13. Brush the fennel slices with 1 TBsp olive oil and grill on a medium hot grill until tender with nice grill marks. Remove from the grill and keep warm
  14. Cook the sea bass on your BBQ until it reaches 63 C then allow to rest in a warm place.

To Serve

Put the sea bass onto your dinner plates and arrange 2 slices of fennel and 2 slices of reserved sliced Clementine’s.   Spoon on some of the sauce and serve with boiled new potatoes.

Chef’s Notes:

I hope my video helps my readers understand how to grill fish successfully on a grill/bbq.

As always let me know your thoughts please.

I served the sea bass on my amazing Urushi glass plate, which worth checking out just to understand how these hand painted plates are made.

The knives I use in the demo are also handmade in Japan

You can read my review about their knives here.

BBQ Sea Bass with Fennel and Clementines©Kevin Ashton 2023

24 thoughts on “How to BBQ Sea Bass”

    1. Thanks Dorothy.
      As a chef, I often “tie” the elements of a dish together such as using the fennel trim to help flavour the mayonnaise based sauce.

      Thank you so much for taking the time to watch my video.
      Best Wishes
      Kevin

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