Sea bass Bilbao style

Sea bass prepared Bilbao style, with chilli and garlic in Arbequina olive oil. The sea bass is farmed in the open Atlantic off the Canary Islands. This fish is of the highest quality and is earmarked for the finest restaurants, including Michelin starred ones, and one cannery: Alalunga.

A super versatile tin. You could pair it with thinly cut fried or boiled new potatoes, or top pasta and rice dishes. 

Farmed sea bass is more sustainable than wild caught, as there is no by-catch or overfishing. Farmed sea bass is fattier than wild-caught sea bass, resulting in a juicier finished product. The sea bass a la bilbaina or al pil pil (with chilli and garlic infused olive oil) is first canned in the olive oil and then the refrito - garlic and cayenne fried in olive oil - is added.

The cannery uses northern Spain's Arbequina olive oil as it is milder than the punchier extra virgin olive oils from the south of Spain, and complements rather than overpowers the delicately flavoured fish.

About the cannery:

Alalunga is a cannery in Cantabria, founded by brothers Alvaro and Pablo Huidobro in 2017. The name is part of the albacore tuna's scientific name: Thunnus Alalunga. The brothers hail from a family of foodies and their knack for cooking, they say, is instinctive, honed on the many family trips to Cantabrian restaurants they took as children, and their grandmother's cooking.

The quality of the Alalunga range is down to a number of factors. Here are three:

Cooking methods that are novel in the canning industry. The brothers use the sous vide technique where fragile white fish like hake and sea bass are sealed inside a vacuum pack and cooked in a water bath at a carefully regulated temperature so as to preserve their delicate flavours and texture. 

Precisely timed recipes. The pair down kitchen tools just before the cooking is complete, and let the steam ovens where the sterilisation process occurs, finish the work and bring the recipes to fruition. 

And most importantly, the highest grade raw materials available are used - seasonally caught cuttlefish, line caught Galician hake, and, in this case, premium sea bass farmed off the Canary Islands.