53 votesAn invigorating Provencal recipe that will put life into your jaded senses, Sea bream cooked with white wine and pastis is a gourmet dish that Michelin Chef Christophe Petra serves in his restaurant Le Sud. In this recipe Chef Petra uses fresh sea bream, also known as porgies in the US, grown in a nearby menagerie or fish farm. While Le Sud serves traditional Provencal cuisine, it is located in Clausen, a quarter in Luxembourg City. If you are lucky enough to get freshly caught Sea Bream, this is of course better to use for this recipe.
Like most Provencal dishes, this recipe uses a generous amount of Provencal herbs, particularly, parsley, fennel and thyme. White wine and pastis are added to the fish before baking in the oven to make it juicier, tastier and develop a strong kick. Pastis is a popular aperitif and digestif in the Mediterranean with a sweet and sharp fragrance and taste. As an aperitif, it is taken before a meal to stimulate the appetite and to counter sluggishness. As a digestif, it is served after a meal and drank to aid digestion. Liquor with a strong anise flavor, Pastis also contains other potent ingredients such as cardamom, nutmeg, sage, cloves, licorice, cinnamon, black and white pepper corns and a little sugar. All these flavors give aroma and spice to the fresh sea bream. Upon cooking, the alcohol in the pastis (which contains 40% alcohol by volume) and the white wine will dissipate leaving all the good vigorous flavors behind.
Serve this on a particularly lazy day and your guests will be awakened by the potency of its tremendous flavors. It can be enjoyed with a good white wine such as Chateau Rasque Blanc and followed by a healthy dose of pastis at the end of the meal. Enjoy!
To prepare: Remove the scales from the sea bream. Mince the parsley and shallots. Take the beans out of their shells. Slice/Cut the fennels and green/spring onions.
Make delicate incisions (or cuts) on three parts: somewhere past the gills, about the top end, and at the middle.
Chop the mushrooms into long cuts. Spread them on a serving dish. Then sprinkle with some of the parsley and shallots. Place the sea bream on top of them. Drizzle with a little oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and rubbed thyme (or you can rub the thyme leaves above it to sprinkle its powder or dust). Spread the beans, fennels, and spring onions around the fish. Pour some white wine (if desired) then Pastis over the fish. Then bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 180°F.
Transfer the fish on another serving plate. Using a spatula, remove the fillets then fishbone (without removing the tail). Fill with the vegetables left on the other plate. Then place the removed fillets delicately on top of the dish. Keep it warm while cooking the gravy.
Pour all the leftovers from the other plate through a strainer and into a bowl or pan. Add some butter. Mix it then pour it over the dish. Spread some herb powders about the sides of the plate for fragrance. And there you have it! Bon appétit!
