Pan-fried Trout with Harissa & Rose | Jerusalem

Ottolenghi and Tamimi explain in their cookbook Jerusalem that the dish, pan-fried sea bass with harissa and rose originates from Bizerte, the northernmost city in Africa. (It’s also a great dish to celebrate Rosh Hashanah.) I adapt the recipe using rainbow trout instead. For the rest, I stay close to the recipe as printed, not knowing what to expect. Glancing through the ingredient list, you can almost image that the dish is sweet and spicy and beautifully aromatic.

First thing first, marinate the fish with the harissa paste and ground cumin. Let the fish marinate for two hours in the fridge. Meanwhile I gather the ingredients. This is necessary because I’m not at all familiar with northern African cuisine. So I start the mise en place for the sauce while finely chopping the onions.

There are two crucial steps: pan-fry the fish and cook the harissa sauce. Once the harissa sauce is ready, it takes just minutes frying the fish fillets and adding them to the simmering sauce. For the most part, the dish can be put together at the very last minutes.

One-pot cooking has its convenience. But last-minute dish has its own merit. Most seafood dishes fall into that category. In order to accomodate my family’s varying conference call and work schedule, I act like a personal chef on flextime and on demand. To make a long story short, I end up cooking four filets separately over a span of three hours. No issue there; nothing I can’t handle with some planning.

On a separate note, eating the pan-fried trout with harissa and rose turns into a conversation on cuisine culture and a guessing game on which spice it features. The sweet, spicy flavor with a floral note is tantalizing — not only to our taste buds, but to our minds. I wish every meal brings as much excitement and enchantment. Needless to say, I can make the same dish again, but the associated experience to eating the fish with the rose harissa sauce will be tough to repeat!

Print Recipe

Pan-fried Sea Bass/Trout with Harissa & Rose

Serves: 2-4

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp harissa paste (store-bought)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 4 sea bass fillets, about 1 pound / 450 g in total, skinned and with pin bones removed
• all-purpose flour, for dusting
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 6 1/2 tbsp / 100 ml red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• scant 1 cup / 200 ml water
• 1 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp rose water
• scant 1/2 cup / 60 g currants (optional) (I use raisins and pinkberry)
• 2 tbsp coarsely chopped cilantro (optional)
• 2 tsp small dried edible rose petals
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1

First marinate the fish. Mix together the harissa paste, the ground cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Rub the paste all over the fish fillets and leave them to marinate for 2 hours in the fridge.

2

Dust the fillets with a little flour and shake off the excess. Heat the olive oil in a wide frying pan over medium-high-heat and fry the fillets for 2 minutes on each side. You may need to do this in two batches. Set the fish aside, leave the oil in the pan, and add the onions. Stir as you cook for about 8 minutes, until the onions are golden.

3

Add the remaining harissa, the vinegar, the cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and plenty of black pepper. Pour in the water, lower the heat, and let the sauce simmer gently for 10 to 15 minutes, until quite thick.

4

Add the honey and rose water to the pan along with the currants, if using, and simmer gently for a couple more minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning and then return the fish fillets to the pan; you can slightly overlap them if they don't quite fit. Spoon the sauce over the fish and leave them to warm up in the simmering sauce for 3 minutes; you may need to add a few tablespoons of water if the sauce is very thick. Serve warm for at room temperature, sprinkled with the cilantro, if using, and the rose petals.

Notes

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/panfried-sea-bass-with-harissa-rose-51185020