Sea Bass in Brown Butter Caper Sauce

A balance of butter and brine splashed with citrus and studded with capers, pan fried sea bass in brown butter caper sauce is a restaurant-style dish that is shockingly quick and simple to achieve at home. The recipe takes just 10 minutes from start to finish and is a snip of the bistro price, meaning there’s a little leftover for a very decent bottle of white. Chin chin!

Non-fish eaters need not miss out! Lemon butter chicken cutlets are based on a similar recipe; all the zesty lemon, unctuous butter and tangy capers, but swapping sea bass fillets for chicken breast.

Pan fried sea bass

Slender sea bass is discernible from other white fish due to its finer flakes and mild flavour. It could be viewed as a safe starter fish for those who are unsure if they enjoy the briny taste of seafood. 

Bass can be baked, roasted or steamed en papillote, but due to the fatty layer below the skin, I prefer to pan fry. This does two things; first, it renders the jelly-like fat; second, it delivers a thin and crispy skin which is delicious, especially if well salted. 

With so much discussion around sustainability, buying fish can be confusing. Should you buy wild or farmed? Which of the certifying bodies stamped on the labels are trustworthy?

I go by two rules that I hope you’ll find helpful too:

1. I only buy fish once a week, twice max.! And I vary the type of fish I buy. This is my bit in preventing overfishing of one species. 
2. I trust the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship (ASC) labels for certifying responsibly sourced fish. Both are international organisations.

And finally, how do you spot a fresh fish? For whole fish, look it in the eyes! They should be clear and bright. The gills should be red, scales intact, and a stiff tail. And fillets? They should look neat and trim, not ragged. In both cases, use your instinct: if it looks dodgy, don’t buy it.

Brown butter caper sauce

Capers and butter are a see-saw of opposites; sharp and smooth, salty and rich, chewy and fluid, and they play beautifully on a fishy white bed. 

So, what is brown butter exactly? Butter is bought yellow, to brown the butter is a cooking process. It’s achieved by heating the butter in a This is an affiliate link.saucepan (not just melting in the microwave) until it separates.

The milk solids will caramelise (you will notice the colour change if you use a light-coloured pan) and turn pleasingly golden. It smells temptingly of toasted nuts. 

To complete the sauce, to the liquid gold add the lemon slices and juice followed by the capers. Usually, as a main course it is spooned generously over white fish, as in this sea bass recipe or my sole meuniere, but it can also be used over shrimp, lobster or chicken. 

For 5-star vegetarian diners, use the unmissable sauce over ravioli or homemade pasta. This versatile number will also elevate vegetable side dishes, try it with baby new potatoes, broccoli or even roasted beetroot. 

Serving suggestions

Yes, you can totally have chips with this pan fried sea bass! No judgement here. Using an air fryer if you have one, will keep the prep time super low too. Use my air fryer Parmesan truffle fries recipe as a guide to making them.

Or to maintain the high-end restaurant illusion, serve with scalloped potatoes with caramelised shallots, or oven-fried potatoes with mushrooms and onions.

With the lemon and butter already on the shopping list, lemon butter green beans is an obvious side. But if enough butter is enough, tenderstem broccoli with lemon garlic vinaigrette is crunchy and vibrant. 

And, wine, of course.

Storage and leftovers

So much of what makes this dish delicious is texture; slippery liquified butter; tender flaky fish. When cooled, those elements alter and are lost. Butter becomes greasy, fish becomes rubbery, so devour this pan fried sea bass in brown butter sauce hot. 

More fish recipes

• Baked Cod with Mustard Sauce
• Salmon Burgers with Spicy Carrot Cucumber Sauce
• Easy Fish Pie
• Salmon Piccata with Lemon Caper Sauce