This is my version of a Rick Stein dish, that he made after eating it at the fabulous Les Templiers bar in Collioure.
It's a gorgeous dish of sliced waxy potatoes, roasted with tomatoes, olives and garlic and topped with beautiful sea bream. In Rick's version, he cooks a whole bream on top of the vegetables, but I prefer to simply pan fry the fillets.
If you haven't had sea bream, then it's not dissimilar to sea bass in terms of flavour, and is quite a meaty, firm white fish. If you can't find bream then bass is a really good alternative.
I've tossed the potatoes in olive oil and Herbes de Provence, a lovely mix of thyme, rosemary, savory, oregano and marjoram - to give it that flavour of the South of France.
Per person
175g charlotte or waxy potatoes
1 large tomato
Handful of black olives
Garlic clove
Olive oil
Herbes de Provence
Sea salt
Fresh lemon
Sea bream or sea bass fillet
- Pre-heat the oven(s) to 190ºC.
- Cut the potatoes into 1cm slices as per the images.
- Slice the tomatoes
- Toss the potato slices in olive oil and a good sprinkling of the Herbes de Provence.
- Spread the potato slices on 1 or 2 flat baking trays and season with sea salt and a squeeze of lemon.
- Pop in the hot oven for 20 minutes, then remove and top with the tomatoes, squashed garlic and olives.
- Drizzle over a little more olive oil and return to the oven for a further 20-25 minutes until the potatoes are golden.
- Sea bream fillets usually take around 6 minutes to pan fry, so heat a little oil and/or butter in a pan not long before the vegetables are ready.
- Cook for approx 3 minutes each side or until the fish is cooked and lightly golden.
- Serve the fillets on top of the vegetables.
