Steamed sea bream with lemon and rosemary

The simplest recipes often end up being the ones we repeat the most. Today I bring you one of them, a simple and very healthy recipe, but absolutely delicious. A lemon, rosemary and pink pepper steamed gilthead seabream that will make you forever abandon the idea that steamed fish is boring. The flesh stays incredibly juicy and firm, and the flavors are enhanced because the seabream cooks in its own juices. The touch of lemon and rosemary, together with the pink pepper, give it a fresh note and a surprising counterpoint to the palate of this recipe.

In fact, one of the cooking methods that leaves fish juiciest is steaming. As you know fish is a food that tolerates overcooking very poorly, and if you go even slightly over the time, it becomes dry and unappealing. The problem often comes from the fact that cooking whole fish by steam is not possible unless you have a steam oven. That's why the WMF Vitalis pot I used today to cook this seabream will be very practical for these kinds of recipes. Not only does it have a steaming basket with a probe-thermometer included in the lid, but once you remove the basket it serves as a low pot similar to a sauté pan.

I accompanied the seabream with some vegetables that I cooked in the basket itself: in this case some asparagus and stalks of pink Swiss chard, saving time and utensils by cooking them at the same time, but you can use whatever vegetables you prefer. To make this recipe a complete dish, I added a couple of tablespoons of quinoa. Anyone want more?

Let's get to the recipe.

WMF Vitalis steam cooking pot and Mediterranean glass cup

Ingredients (For 2 servings)

• 1 whole gilthead seabream of about 400 g, gutted and scaled, opened in half
• 1 lemon cut into slices
• 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• Pink peppercorns
• Coarse Guérande salt "Le Paludier"
• 1 bunch of asparagus
• 6 pink Swiss chard stalks
• Extra virgin olive oil

Preparation

1. Clean and dry the seabream well. Salt it with a few turns of a grinder of coarse Guérande salt "Le Paludier". Insert inside the seabream a couple of lemon slices and a couple of sprigs of fresh rosemary. Set aside
2. Pour water into the interior of the WMF Vitalis pot, and add some pink peppercorns, a sprig of rosemary and a couple of lemon slices. Then place the basket brushed with a little oil.
3. Place the seabream with the lemon and rosemary and add some pink peppercorns.
4. Place the cleaned asparagus beside it and the chard stalks cut to a similar size to the asparagus.
5. Place the lid with the probe-thermometer and put on the heat. When the thermometer reads 90-100ºC, count 12 minutes. Check after 6 minutes if your pot still has water at the bottom. If not, add enough to maintain the level.
6. After that time the fish will be cooked. Remove the lid and carefully, because it will be very hot, take out the basket. Separate the fillets and discard the backbone and the head. Serve the fillets with the vegetables accompanied by quinoa and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Garnish with a lemon slice and a sprig of rosemary.

Your portion of seabream will be the juiciest you have ever eaten thanks to steaming.

WMF Vitalis steam cooking pot

Tips

• Depending on the size of your seabream, you should adjust the cooking time.
• Instead of cooking the whole seabream with head and backbone, you can ask at your fishmonger to have the fillets removed. In that case you can increase the servings, because there will be more space in the basket, but keep in mind that the cooking time will be shorter, so remember to adjust times.
• If you use a different type of vegetable, bear in mind that you may need to cook them a little longer or perhaps less, depending on the hardness of the vegetables.

Enjoy.