Sea Bass with roasted Zucchini and Carrots

We recently moved into town to be closer to everything, like our work, doctors, shopping, and our favorite gym. We also have access to at least three farmers markets in this community instead of just one. However, we are still taking advantage of the delivery service provided by SLO Veg, partly because it saves me time and partly because it allows us to have a variety of fruits and vegetables we might not normally purchase. This way I have to do a little recipe investigation, which keeps cooking fun and interesting, instead of doing the same old thing week after week. Our delivery day also changed, so now I get whatever the fish catch of the day is for Monday from SLO Fresh Catch, as well. While we are not now right next to the ocean, we are still just a short drive from the fisheries. We have cows across the street. We might even get a few chickens for the backyard. It's the SLO life!

We were excited to get some Sea Bass in our delivery this week. It's a nice firm, meaty fish with fewer bones to pick through than the Grenadier and Cod selections. We had to take tweezers and pull out some bones that looked like long needles, but there were only about four of them in one of the pieces.

This olive oil is from Tasty Olive in Monterey

The fish was simply prepared with just a little coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning, then pan fried in a mixture of olive oil and butter. It took just 2 or 3 minutes on each side before the fish began to flake apart. Then I removed the fish from the pan and deglazed the pan with some white wine (a lovely, local Dry Gewurtztraminer). I squeezed in the juice from one big Meyer lemon and added a teaspoonful of capers to the sauce, which was then poured over the fish after it was plated.

I made a side dish of orzo pasta that I browned lightly in butter in the pot, then added water (1:2 ratio pasta/water). When it was cooked through, I stirred in some shredded Romano-Parmesan cheese and a small handful of chopped chives and basil.

Our plates were finished with a generous helping of cheesy orzo pasta and some roasted zucchini, red onion and carrots. The special thing about roasting the vegetables was I used a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme, picked right from our front walkway planter, which were simply placed on top of the vegetables that had been drizzled with buttery olive oil on a cookie sheet. I let them go in a 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes, and the flavors of the herbs infused throughout the vegetables during the cooking time. Finished with a sprinkling of coarse salt: Simple, savory, delicioso!