Sea bass with sizzled ginger, chilli & spring onions

Name: Sea bass with sizzled ginger, chilli & spring onions
Prep time: 9 min
Cook time: 18 min
Total time: 27 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Ingredients: 6 Sea Bass Fillets; 3 tablespoons Sunflower Oil; Knob Ginger; 3 sliced thinly Garlic Clove; 3 Large Red Chilli; Bunch Spring Onions; 1 tablespoon Soy Sauce

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Seafood recipe with Vietnamese flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 47 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Step-by-step instructions

Season 6 sea bass fillets with salt and pepper, then slash the skin 3 times.
Heat a heavy-based frying pan and add 1 tbsp sunflower oil.
Once hot, fry the sea bass fillets, skin-side down, for 5 mins or until the skin is very crisp and golden. The fish will be almost cooked through.
Turn over, cook for another 30 seconds - 1 minute, then transfer to a serving plate and keep warm. You’ll need to fry the sea bass fillets in 2 batches.
Heat 2 tbsp sunflower oil, then fry the large knob of peeled ginger, cut into matchsticks, 3 thinly sliced garlic cloves and 3 thinly shredded red chillies for about 2 mins until golden.
Take off the heat and toss in the bunch of shredded spring onions. Splash the fish with 1 tbsp soy sauce and spoon over the contents of the pan.

Why this works on a weeknight

Sea bass with sizzled ginger, chilli & spring onions genuinely fits a 30-minute weeknight window, which is why it earned a spot in our Skillet & One-Pan collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Sea bass with sizzled ginger, chilli & spring onions actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🥘 Skillet & One-Pan Seafood Vietnamese ⚡ 30-Min Dinner