I’ve got a quick yet fancy meal that presents fish for guests who like fish but they may not want to fuss with cleaning the fish or removing bones.

Greece exports some fabulous farm raised fish to much of the world, including Canada. I love to cook with Selonda’s fish and today I’m using their filleted sea bream. Sea bream is a fish in the pandora family and in Greek we call this fish “tsipoura”.

The best fish is the freshest fish, so if you find another type of fish that’s fresh – go for it. Here, I’ve made a delicious riff on ladolemono or an oil-lemon sauce with an addition of orange and grapefruit juices, some minced red onions and capers to add balance, make savory and some chopped parsley and dried oregano.

The starch here is potatoes, a mashed potato if you will but no milk – just olive oil, tomato paste and some chopped herbs. This is a great meal for a weeknight or an easy crowd pleaser if you have guests.

Pan-Seared Sea Bream with Citrus-Caper Sauce

(serves 4)

Potato and Tomato olive puree

4 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and quartered

4 cloves of peeled garlic

2 tsp. tomato paste

1/4 – 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp. sea salt

Citrus-Caper Sauce

1/4 cup finely diced red onions

1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

3 Tbsp. finely chopped capers

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

juice of 1/2 lemon

juice of 1/2 orange

juice of 1/2 grapefruit

approx. 1/2 extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper

1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/2 tsp. dried Greek oregano

For the fish

8 sea bream fillets

1/4 extra virgin olive oil

zest of 2 lemons

sea salt and fresh ground pepper

1. Place your potatoes and garlic in a medium pot covered in cold water and bring up to a boil. Add salt and boil until potatoes are fork tender. Strain then place back in the pot and add tomato paste and mash. Now add olive oil and mix in until desired consistency is achieved. Add more salt and pepper to taste, chopped chives and parsley and keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, make the Citrus-Caper sauce by adding the vinegar and shallots in a large jar and allow the vinegar to soften the onions for 5 minutes. Add the capers, mustard, citrus juices and olive oil and seal and shake to emulsify. Add salt, pepper to taste, then add parsley and oregano and shake once more. Reserve.
3. Use a sharp knife to score the skin side of the fillets. Rub both sides with olive oil and then rub the lemon zest over all the fillets and season with salt and pepper.
4. Add some olive oil to a medium-high hot large non-stick pan and place the fillets skin side down and sauté for 3 minutes or until golden and crisp (sauté in batches if needed). Use a long, flat spatula to flip the fish and cook for another minute.
5. Reserve in a warm oven if cooking in batches then serve skin side up with the warm potato puree. Shake the jar of Citrus-Caper Sauce and spoon around and on the fish. Serve with a Tselepos Mantinia Classic.