Skillet Sea Bass with Chive Garlic Butter
Fresh fish on a grill grate, finished with a puck of herb butter made at home.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 6.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 66
- protein
- 32 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Grill grate
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Sea bass fillets | 2 fillets, 5 oz each | frozen at home, thawing in the cooler by dinner |
|---|---|---|
| Unsalted butter | 4 tbsp | softened, then rolled and chilled at home |
| Chives | 2 tbsp minced | dried chives work if the trip is long |
| Garlic | 1 clove, minced | or 1/2 tsp granulated garlic |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Kosher salt and black pepper | to taste |
Method
- At home: mash the butter with the chives, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Roll it in parchment into a log, chill it hard, then cut two thick coins and wrap them separately.
- At camp, burn the fire down to coals and set a cast iron skillet on the grate. Give it five minutes to get evenly hot.
- Blot the fillets dry and season both sides. Wet fish steams instead of browning.
- Add the oil, then lay the fillets skin side down. Do not move them for three to four minutes, until the edges go opaque and the crust releases on its own.
- Flip once and slide the skillet to the cooler edge of the grate. Two to four more minutes, until the thickest part flakes when you push a fork into it.
- Pull the pan off the heat and drop a butter coin on each fillet. It melts into a sauce in about thirty seconds. Eat straight from the pan.
The original is a stovetop sear finished in an oven, which is not a thing you have in camp. On a grate over coals the fix is heat management instead: sear over the hot center, then slide the pan to the edge and let residual heat carry the fish through. Cast iron holds enough heat to do that without a second burner.
The compound butter is the part worth doing at home. Mixing softened butter with herbs and garlic in a bowl at a picnic table is a mess, and the log form means you carry exactly two portions and dose them without a knife. It also melts into an instant pan sauce, which is the only sauce you get when the whole meal is one skillet.
Packing
Fish stays frozen in the bottom of the cooler and becomes dinner on night one or two. Butter coins go in a small hard container against the ice, not loose in a bag, or you will be scraping them off a wrapper.
Variations
- Swap the sea bass for any firm fillet. Rockfish, cod, and trout all take the same sear.
- Lemon zest in the butter cuts the fat and travels better than a whole lemon.
- No cooler space for fish? A vacuum-sealed salmon pouch warmed in the buttered skillet gets you most of the way there.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/pan-roasted-sea-bass-with-garlic-butter