Sweet date and sour tamarind sea bass recipe

I adore sweet and sour flavours together, and especially the combination of dates and tamarind, which is a match made in (food) heaven, said Noor Murad. This is a wonderfully easy dish to make, with super-punchy flavours. Serve it as a light lunch with some lightly dressed greens, or with rice for a more substantial meal.

Ingredients:

• 60g tamarind pulp (from a block)
• 220ml boiling water
• 60g pitted Medjool dates (about 3)
• 1 small red onion, very finely chopped
• 1 small green pepper, stem and seeds removed, finely chopped into 0.5cm cubes
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1-2 green chillies, finely chopped, seeds and all (depending on your heat preference)
• 30g coriander leaves and soft stems, finely chopped
• 3 1⁄2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve
• 4 medium unskinned sea bass fillets
• 1 tsp mild curry powder
• 1⁄2 lime fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

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• Preheat the oven to 210°C fan. Line a shallow baking dish (roughly 30x20cm) with baking paper.
• Place the tamarind in a small heatproof bowl and pour over 120ml of the boiling water. In a separate heatproof bowl, add the dates and the remaining 100ml of the boiling water. Set both aside for 15 mins. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix together the onion, green pepper, garlic, chilli, coriander, 2 tbsp of the oil, 1⁄4 tsp salt and a good grind of pepper.
• When ready, remove the dates and place them in the bowl of a food processor along with 2 tbsp of their water, then blitz until finely chopped, and you have a paste (you can also do this with a hand-held blender).
• Use your fingers to loosen the tamarind pulp from the seeds, then pour this through a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl. Push down on the solids to extract as much of the tamarind liquid as possible, scraping at the bottom of the sieve. Discard the solids and then mix in the date paste.
• Pat dry the sea bass and place the fillets, skin-side down, in the baking dish (don't worry if they slightly overlap). Sprinkle the flesh all over with the curry powder, 3⁄4 tsp salt and a grind of pepper. Spoon over the tamarind and date mixture, using your fingers to coat the flesh, then pour over the remaining 1 1⁄2 tbsp of oil.
• Lastly, spoon the onion and pepper mixture down the fillets. Bake for 17-20mins, or until cooked through and lightly coloured. Transfer to a plate, squeeze over the lime and drizzle with some extra olive oil.

Taken from Lugma: Abundant Dishes & Stories from My Middle East by Noor Murad, published by Quadrille at £28. Photography by Matt Russell. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £24.99, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.

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