Anything Clever Involving "Fish" Is Pretty Gross

Remember when I made that Chick Pea "Stew" and bought saffron for it? Well, now I have a bunch (and by "bunch" I mean "about a teaspoon") of saffron in my apartment that I'd like to use because it was fucking expensive. Luckily, I have more than a few cookbooks that assume the reader is made of money and just has tons of saffron sitting around all the time. Hurray?

Sea Bass in Tomato-Saffron Sauce
Adapted from Power Foods.

1/4 cup sliced almonds
3 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp saffron threads
1 can (28 oz.) whole peeled tomatoes
salt
pepper
1 lb sea bass
1/4 cup dried currants
3 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced


Either on your stovetop in a small pan or in your oven at 350 F, toast your almonds (about 3-4 minutes on the stovetop, about 6-7 minutes in the oven). Meanwhile, heat oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add garlic to hot oil and cook, stirring, for about a minute. Add red pepper and saffron; cook about another minute or until fragrant. Add tomatoes. Using your stirring utensil, break up the whole tomatoes. Add salt (about 1/2 tsp). Bring to a simmer and stir occasionally, cooking until mixture has thickened (about 15 minutes).

Cut fish into 1- to 2-inch pieces. Season generously on both sides with salt and pepper. Add fish to tomato-saffron sauce. Add currants. Cover and cook 5 minutes. Stir to combine and cover to cook for another 5 minutes. When the fish is flaky and no longer gelatinous (as fish is), it's done.

Transfer to bowl(s) and sprinkle with almonds and scallions.

Notes

• The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 lbs of sablefish which is higher in omega-3s and just one of those generally super-healthy fishes. My Whole Foods didn't have any sablefish but the fish guy called around for me and found out sea bass has a similar cooking profile and I think it worked out just fine. I went with only a pound because shit's expensive.
• Also, there is 1/2 tsp fennel seeds in the original recipe but I hate fennel and everything else that tastes like licorice. If you want to add these, do so when you add the red pepper and saffron.
• If you wanted to substitute crushed tomatoes for whole you probably could, but I liked having big chunks of tomato to bite into now and again. Your call.
• It was really wonderful the first night and kept fine, but was never quite as good. Definitely something to make for more than one person so it all gets finished in the same night.

Cost

• I made this last for 4 servings which happens to be what the book recommends. If you care about this kind of thing, each serving runs about 530 calories.
• Between the sea bass and the saffron, if you're starting from scratch this puppy is going to be pricey. For me it ended up at $7.05/serving.