Sea Bass fillets served with Ginger, Red Peppers, Spring Onions and Noodles

My January resolution was to avoid red meat in the week and eat more healthily so a tasty piece of Sea Bass, served up with spicy noodles seemed to the right balance of healthy and tasty.  That's the problem with trying to be healthy is that taste often suffers (yes there are plenty of vegetarians out there that will disagree).  The great thing about Asian food that it doesn't rely on red meat and is very tasty indeed.

Prepare the fish by filleting.  Keep the bones and head and make a fish stock.  This is very easy - add carrots, celery, onion or leeks with bay leaves and parsley)  This cooks for no longer than 30 minutes as fish bones can get bitter over time.

To make the noodles was simple, its really all about preparation (mise en place to you chefs out there).  The actual cooking tome is very quick especially the fish and you don't want to be messing about with the noodles as when the fish is ready - its ready and should be eaten straight away.

For the noodles you need

• An inch square of fresh ginger, 
• A stick of lemon grass, 
• 2 cloves of garlic, one red pepper 
• 4 spring onions 
• tablespoon of fish sauce
• tablespoon of dark soy 
• Thai noodles (enough for 4 people 
• 2 red peppers
• Packet of 2 pak choi
• Sesame seeds (to be browned off and sprinkled on the fish)
• Ladle of fish stock (i had used the fish heads and bones to make a stock)
• 2 good handfuls of Mange Tout 
• Bunch of coriander

The garlic, lemon grass and garlic are fried in a wok and once cooked through add the peppers, cook those for 2 minutes and then add the pak choi, spring onions and noodles which will have been soaked in hot water for 3 minutes.  Add the stock and sauces, check for seasoning and your done.

when you put the noodles on put the fillets which you have seasoned with salt and pepper  in a hot pan with sesame oil.  Cook skin side up for 2-3 minutes or until you can see the flesh starting to go white and then flip over.

Pass the chopped coriander through the noodles and serve in a warm bowl.  Place the fillet on top and sprinkle with the sesame seeds and some more coriander.

Now that's a tasty healthy dish to start the week!