Herb-crusted sea bass with toasted coconut and tomato dressing
Serves: 4
Prep time: 15 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Kris Kirkham
Herb-crusted sea bass with toasted coconut and tomato dressing
Serves: 4
Prep time: 15 minsTotal time: 
See more recipes
Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
366Kcal
Fat
30gr
Saturates
11gr
Carbs
3gr
Sugars
3gr
Fibre
3gr
Protein
20gr
Salt
0.2gr
Shelina Permalloo
A former MasterChef winner in 2012, Shelina, a Mauritian Muslim born in the UK, is now a successful food writer and presenter. She runs Lakaz Maman in Southampton, where she serves up Mauritian street-food style dishes
See more of Shelina Permalloo’s recipes
Shelina Permalloo
A former MasterChef winner in 2012, Shelina, a Mauritian Muslim born in the UK, is now a successful food writer and presenter. She runs Lakaz Maman in Southampton, where she serves up Mauritian street-food style dishes
See more of Shelina Permalloo’s recipes
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp rapeseed oil, plus extra to brush
- handful of curry leaves, fresh or dried
- grated zest and juice of 1 lime
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp mustard seeds
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- 1 tbsp chopped coriander
- 4 sea bass fillets (2 x 180g packs)
For the spicy coconut and tomato dressing
- ½ coconut, shelled and peeled into thin slices using a vegetable peeler, or 50g desiccated coconut flakes
- 3 ripe vine tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- ½ x 31g pack coriander, roughly chopped
- 1 red bird eye chilli, leave the seeds in for extra heat
- 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
Step by step
Get ahead
You can prepare the parcels a few hours ahead. Chill, and add 2 minutes to the cooking time from chilled.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. Dry-toast the coconut slices for the dressing in a frying pan, until they brown; set aside.
- Cut two 50cm lengths of baking paper and fold each one in half to make a seam, then open up. Brush with a little oil and scatter a few curry leaves on one half of each sheet.
- Mix together the oil, lime zest and juice with the turmeric, mustard seeds, parsley and coriander, plus seasoning. Rub this into the sea bass fillets, on both sides. Place 2 fillets on each sheet of baking paper on top of the curry leaves. Scatter the rest of the leaves on top.
- Fold over the edges of baking paper to seal; you can either twist and crimp the edge like a big Cornish pasty, or fold the edges over twice and secure with paper clips. Place the parcels on a large baking tray and bake for 8 minutes.
- To prepare the dressing, put the ingredients, plus half of the toasted coconut and ½ teaspoon salt into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Fold in the rest of the toasted coconut (keep some for garnishing) and serve alongside the sea bass topped with the toasted coconut. Serve with salad leaves.
Chef quote
You can pack these fish parcels with flavour, and when your friends come over, the oven is the only thing you need to switch on, while you can switch off and enjoy a relaxing evening.
