This dish from Avenue restaurant is designed to work in harmony. Sea herbs introduce nutty, salty flavours, while the delicate sea bass sits on top of a tomato and saffron broth. Rapeseed oil makes a mellower alternative to extra virgin olive oil.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

• 800ml fish stock
• 0.2g saffron
• 2 plum tomatoes, sliced
• 4 x 1.2-1.5kg wild sea bass fillets (farmed sea bass is an alternative)
• 2 medium-size potatoes, diced 2cm by 2cm
• 200g cleaned raw mussels in the shells
• 8-12 pieces of sundried tomatoes
• 1 bunch of spinach, washed and picked
• 8 green olives, pitted and sliced
• Black pepper
• Sea salt
• Sea Blite, Sea Purslane or other edible seaside wild herbs (try Forager)
• Drizzle of extra virgin rapeseed oil

Method:

Ask your fishmonger to prepare and portion the sea bass

Place the fish stock, saffron and sliced tomatoes into a sauce pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes then take off the heat and leave to infuse for half an hour

Pass the stock through a fine sieve into a clean sauce pan

Bring the sieved stock to a simmer and add the sea bass fillets. Poach them gently for about 6 minutes, or until cooked, then remove from the stock.

Place the stock back on the heat and add the diced potato, then cook for 3 minutes before adding the mussels and sun-dried tomatoes. Cook for a further minute until the mussels are open, then add the spinach and sliced olives

Take your pan off the heat before seasoning the broth with freshly ground black pepper and sea salt

Divide the cooked sea bass into four bowls, pour the mussel, tomato and saffron broth over the fish, and finish the dish with a drizzle of rapeseed oil and the wild herbs

Homemade fish stock

Ingredients:

• 2kg white fish bones, such as turbot, sea bass or halibut
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• the white part of 1 leek, roughly chopped
• 1 celery stick, roughly chopped
• ½ fennel bulb, roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 50ml olive oil
• 200ml white wine
• 1 bay leaf
• 6 white pepper corns, crushed
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 2 sprigs parsley

Method: (1.5l) (Fish stock will keep up to two days in the fridge)

Chop the fish bones into small pieces and wash them under cold running water to remove all traces of blood. Drain in a colander. Wash the chopped vegetables in cold water and drain

Warm the olive oil in a saucepan then sweat the vegetables without colouring for five minutes. Add the fish bones and cook for a further three minutes, also without colouring. Add the wine and cook until evaporated. Now, pour two litres of cold water over the bones and bring it to the boil

Reduce the heat to a simmer and remove any scum that floats to surface

When the stock is clear and the fish bones have settled on the bottom, add bay leaf and herbs and cook for 15 minutes

Remove the stock from the heat and pass through a fine sieve into a saucepan. Discard the bones and vegetables

Put the stock onto the heat and reduce by a third to concentrate the flavour. Pass the reduced stock through a fine sieve into a container and refrigerate.