Broiled Striped Bass

We were in Los Angeles last weekend and stopped at a fish market in Koreatown where we purchased a farm-raised striped bass. I don't recall ever eating striped bass before. 

The striped bass was originally found along the Atlantic coast of North America and like salmon is anadromous, that is, it normally lives in salt water, but migrates into fresh water to spawn. And like salmon, it can live its entire life in freshwater. It has been introduced into lakes near where we live, including Diamond Valley Lake and Lake Silverwood. It has a silvery body with longitudinal dark stripes that run from behind the gills to the tail. 

Striped bass. I had to clean it and de-scale it, which made a mighty mess. 

Judy came up with a recipe that called for a mixture of olive oil, fresh mint, chopped scallions, salt, pepper and fresh squeezed lemon which was rubbed inside and outside of the fish, with some reserved to use during eating. It also called for lemon slices to be placed in the cavity of the fish and I also placed lemon slices on the outside. 

Mint, oil and lemon mixture.

The bass ready for placement in the broiler.

It called for placing it six inches from the heat source in a broiler and cooking it for five minutes on each side. The five minutes was not sufficient to cook the fish so I ended up putting it in for an additional 3 or 4 minutes on each side. In the process the fish started to fall apart and so the final product was not a great picture. 

But the bass itself was good. It has a mild white flesh and the lemon and mint mixture worked well with it. 

The striped bass along with a fennel and orange salad and Russian potato salad.

This was a first for me in broiling fish and in eating striped bass.