Salt Crust Sea Bass

Thank you Ugo for delivering this seabass to my doorstep. I put it to proper use. One of our all-time favorites, served with some pressed spinach and home-made mayonnaise.

seabass (in this case, was 800 gr)
2 kg rock salt
4 tblsp water
2 eggs
juice an zest of 1 lemon
fennel seed
basil, parsley (any herb you like)
EVOO

1. put oven on max temperature
2. gut fish, remove gills, snip off fins (keep scales on for this recipe, as they help to insulate heat for this method of cooking), clean thoroughly with running water
3. stuff cavity with herbs
4. mix together salt, water, lemon zest, fennel seed
5. in a pan, layer some salt about 1.5 cm thick on bottom of a pan; place fish on top and cover with rest of salt (can leave head and tail exposed for presentation)
6. generally, need 15 minutes of cooking for every 500 gr of fish; in this case we cooked 25 minutes, but 20-22 minutes would have been slightly better.
7. when done cooking, take out of oven and let rest ten minutes
8. tap the salt crust near tail to break; if you're lucky the whole thing should come off neatly
9. wipe the rest of the fish, making sure salt doesn't enter the cavity; remove herbs from cavity
10. butterfly the fish, remove flesh and place prettily on a nice oval white platter
11. serve with condiments on the side: EVOO, lemon, mayonnaise and of course the spinach