Sea bass en papillote with carrot, leek and ginger

Ingredients to serve

2x200g sea bass fillets
1 carrot
Half a leek
20g root ginger
2 teaspoons olive oil
Half a fennel bulb
500ml fish stock
Zest of half a lemon
2 spring onions, chopped
Salt and pepper

To prepare the fish and vegetables, remove the skin from the sea bass fillets. Peel the carrot and cut into julienne strips. Remove the outer layers of the leek and cut into fine strips. Peel the ginger (keep the skin for the stock) and cut into fine strips. Saute the ginger in a teapoon of olive oil, add the carrots and leek and cook for three to four minutes. Season to taste and set aside.

For the fennel stock, heat one teaspoon of olive oil in a saucepan. Chop the fennel finely and saute together with the skin of the ginger. Pour in the fish stock to cover the fennel and cook for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside so the stock can infuse for 20 minutes. Pass it through a fine sieve, keeping the liquid but discarding the vegetables.

For the papillotes, preheat the oven to 180c/gas mark 4. Cut a circle of greaseproof paper measuring about 20cm in diameter and place it on an A3-sized piece of aluminium foil. Place half the leek and ginger mixture in the centre of the greaseproof circle. Add a sea bass fillet and top with some lemon zest, spring onion, salt and pepper. Pour 100ml of the fennel fish stock onto the sea bass. Place another sheet of foil on top of the sea bass and fold in the edges to make a tightly sealed parcel. Make the other parcel the same way. If making this dish for four, put two pieces of fish in a parcel.

Put the papillotes in an ovenproof pan and heat on the stove until parcels start to expand. Cook in the preheated oven for five minutes.

Make sure everyone is seated at the table when you take the papillotes out of the oven. They will only stay puffed up for about a minute before they deflate, so bring them to the table for everyone to see and serve straight away. Open the papillotes with a sharp knife and use a spatula to serve the fish and vegetables onto warm plates. Pour over the juices.

From 'From Nature To Plate' by Tom Kitchin, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £30

Sommelier's choice

Château Ferrande, Graves 2007, France (Nicolas, £12.99)

To accompany the sea bass, why not try this pale gold Bordeaux, fresh and lively on the nose.

www.nicolas.co.uk