Steamed sea bass fillets with warm basil butter sauce

There are any number of other dislikes, such as “farmed salmon... yuk, full of disease.

Frankly, I’d rather eat a rat.”

He rattles off his forthright views at breakneck speed and with considerable force but is unapologetic because he says: “I’m passionate about food. It’s a subject you never stop learning about and I just want people to realise that 50 per cent of good food is about the raw ingredients. The rest is down to the recipe and the skill of the person cooking.”

Television brought him to prominence as a devoted family man and respected chef in the TV series French Leave and the sequel Return of the Chef, which also featured his wife Kim and six of the eight children they had between them, but a costly divorce followed.

His ex-wife shut the restaurant they were running while he was in the Australian jungle competing in I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and he’s once again running the business he loves, the New Angel restaurant in Dartmouth, Devon.

Burton Race, aged 50, is not content to simply sound off but has produced a new cook book, Flavour First (Quadrille, £20) – a practical guide to seasonal ingredients and imaginative ways to cook them.

He hopes his book will arm people with the skills and knowledge to know about seasonal foods. It gives both recipes and practical techniques for preparing dishes such as fresh crab, best end of lamb and the filleting of fish.

One of his favourite dishes is steamed sea bass fillets with warm basil butter sauce. He said: “This is such an enticing dish. A vibrant spinach and basil butter sauce is the perfect foil for beautiful sea bass fillets and I like to serve it on a bed of cannellini beans, flavoured with diced peppers and courgettes.”

Serves four

Ingredients:

600g sea bass fillet

Salt and pepper

240ml fish stock

1 slice of garlic

1 tarragon sprig, blanched

For the basil butter:

1 bunch of basil, trimmed

100g leaf spinach, cleaned

120g unsalted butter, soft

Garnish: Deep-fried or fresh basil.

Method:

First prepare the basil butter. Blanch the basil and spinach leaves briefly by immersing them in boiling water for a few seconds, then drain and pat dry with kitchen paper. Tip the leaves into a blender and whiz to chop finely, then add the butter and blend until completely smooth and velvety. The butter will turn bright green. Transfer to a small bowl, cover and refrigerate until later.

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Cut the sea bass into four equal portions, check for pin bones and season with salt and pepper. Pour two-thirds of the stock into a shallow ovenproof saute pan, add the garlic and tarragon and bring to the boil.

Lay the fish fillets in the pan and lower the heat. Place a piece of buttered greaseproof paper over the fish and cover with a tight-fitting lid.

Transfer the pan to the oven to steam the fish for five to seven minutes until just cooked. Lift the fish fillets onto a warmed plate and keep warm. Return the saute pan to the hob over a medium heat and reduce the stock by half, then lower the heat. Slowly add the basil butter, a piece at a time, whisking constantly – the sauce will thicken as you do so. Don’t let it boil, or the sauce will split. Once all the butter is incorporated, strain the sauce through a sieve into a warm jug and season with salt and pepper.

Ideally, serve each portion of sea bass, skin side up, on a bed of cannellini beans with peppers and courgettes. Pour the basil butter sauce around and garnish with deep-fried (or fresh) basil leaves. Serve immediately.

Fish Stock

Makes about 1.2 litres

Ingredients:

2kg white fish bones (preferably sole, turbot or halibut)

50ml olive oil

50g unsalted butter

2 onions, peeled and diced

4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

1 bay leaf

2 thyme sprigs

2 tarragon sprigs

3 parsley stalks

½ tsp fennel seeds

400ml dry white wine

Salt and pepper

Method:

Rinse the fish bones in plenty of cold water. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large pan, add the onions and garlic and fry for five minutes without colouring.

Add the herbs, fennel seeds and white wine. Turn up the heat and reduce the wine by half. Add the fish bones to the pan, then add about 1.5 litres water to cover. Bring to the boil and skim off the scum from the surface. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 40 minutes, then strain. For a clear stock, strain once more through a muslin-lined sieve. Allow to cool. Refrigerate and use within two days or freeze for up to three months. Season the stock just before using.