This recipe is from my book–Delicious Dishes for Diabetics– to be published in August.
It is adapted from a favourite recipe of Quentin Blake, the illustrator of children’s books.
It’s very simple but a bit scary because the fish is cooked at such a high temperature it doesn’t seem possible it will survive the heat, but the scales protect it.
This fish looked good on the stall in Castres market on Saturday morning. It weighed in at 1.25lb–perfect for 2.
M. Gayraud, the fishmonger, gutted it but left the scales on. He pulled back the head to show me the brilliant freshness of the gills.
I collected a large bunch of rosemary from the overgrown bush in the driveway;
Back in the kitchen, I set the oven to 240C/450F
and arranged the rosemary in a small roasting tray;
I washed the fish, being careful not to wipe off the scales, and dried it thoroughly;
salted the cavity and stuffed it with two or three sprigs of rosemary.
Then I laid the fish on top of the rosemary and seasoned it with salt and pepper.
It went into the middle of the oven and cooked for 15 to 20 minutes, the time depends on the size of the fish.
It’s worth checking.
Peel back the skin a little –the flesh should be white and succulent.
When you are satisfied, peel off the skin and carefully separate the fillets.
Serve with this simple sauce.
3 tablespoons of olive oil.
1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
Salt and pepper.
Put the juice in a bowl and add the seasoning.
whisk in the olive oil.
Robin Ellis 
OH MY! sounds and looks yummy but please Robin, what is sea bream in French? Some of us buying your book will be living in France. By the way, can’t wait to try your cauliflower recipe. Two tiny mistakes probably, you say to put the cauliflower in a large (and here you didn’t finish your sentence… bowl I suppose but anyone half way smart can guess of course). Then you mention putting together the cauliflower and broccoli unless I misread because it was the middle of the night that I looked at your great website. Plus I love the way you tell your food stories. Merci mille fois
Bon appétit
Rosemary
Hi Rosemary,
Sea bream is Daurade–in this case Daurade Grise.
Hi encore Rosemary, and thanks–I didn’t at first see the rest of your post, I’m a bit new to this.
The “bowl”–you were right–is there now!
No broccoli now–just the nourishing cauliflower, for which there is a second recipe below the socca recette.
I can see that your blog is going to be a problem, I’n not used to sitting at my computer looking at pictures of delicious food being prepared. It’s making me hungry! And it means I can make suggestions to the cook about our supper.
Is it difficult to peel the skin off, and do the scales stay attached to it?
Hi Vicky,
No, peel it back slowly–it’s quite satisfying.
No–with any luck!– en principe anyway!