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This was the main course for my six-course supper club at Brown and Green, Crystal Palace, in August 2024. It consists of baked sea bream (or the vegetarian/vegan alternative baked courgettes with tahini dressing), a spinach filo pie, a flower salad (these were nasturtium flowers and leaves from my garden, but you can buy edible flowers), tzatziki and pickled peppers. It was a big sharing meal, with lots of little morsels to pass round, so diners could enjoy lots of different flavours. For the full menu on the night, see here.
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Serves 6
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Spinach pie:
750g spinach
2 eggs
100g single cream
2 tbsp chopped dill
8 sheets of filo pastry
40ml olive oil
Baked seabass with garden herbs:
1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing
3 whole seabass, gutted with heads on
2 lemons
4 tbsp of garden herbs, like chives, parsley, sage, mint and oregano, roughly torn
Tzatziki:
1/2 cucumber, grated
250g Greek yogurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
1 garlic clove, grated
2 tbsp dill
2 tbsp mint
nasturtium flowers and leaves
150g sweet pickled peppers
sea salt and black pepper
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Blanch spinach, refresh and squeeze dry. In a large bowl, mix together the spinach, eggs and cream. Season with pepper. Mix the dill with oil. Half 2 filo pastry sheets and brush all sides of the pastry with the oil. Line a 20cm cake tin with the sheets. Brush two sets of three filo sheets each side with the dill oil, then divide the spinach mixture between them. Roll the filo into sausage shapes and then roll into a spiral shape. Place in the centre of the cake tin, then wrap the second filo sausage shape around the spiral within the cake tin, to continue the spiral. Bake for 30 mins in a 180°C oven. Cut into six and keep warm until you serve.
In the meantime, grease a large oven tray with olive oil and lay the sea bream out on the tray. Halve and squeeze the lemons over the fish and place the halves in some of the fish cavities. Fill the fish cavities with the garden herbs and sprinkle a few over the fish as well. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 25 mins, until cooked thoroughly and golden.
While the fish is cooking, drain the cucumber and squeeze as much water out of it as possible. Mix in the Greek yogurt, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, dill and mint, then season with salt and pepper. Serve the fish with the spinach pie, a side of tzatziki, the flower salad and pickled peppers.
