Monkfish

Description

Firm, meaty monkfish fillets lend themselves easily to grilling and barbecuing as well as baked, pan-fried or, curried.

Pan-fried: heat the pan, add some butter, cut the fillet into slices and throw into the pan when the butter is foaming, turn after 2-3 minutes depending on the thickness, add a little salt and a lot of pepper, a squeeze of lime juice and some chopped coriander.

Barbecued: cut the monkfish tail into bite size chunks. Chop an onion and a red or green pepper into quarters, thread alternately with the monkfish onto skewers, brush with oil and season lightly and barbecue for 2 minutes on each side.

Curried: This monkfish curry has a gentle heat from ground chilli, turmeric, ginger and mustard seeds, balanced out with a little creamy coconut milk. Fun to do and really worth trying out.
Cut 2 medium size monkfish fillets into small cubes and thinly slice an onion, chop 4 ripe tomatoes and grate a 1 inch piece of ginger. Heat a frying pan and add some oil. When the oil is hot, add half a teaspoon of mustard seeds and fry until they start to pop.
Then add half a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds, 3 curry leaves, the ginger, stir, then add the sliced onion and cook until the onion is just turning gold.
Add half a teaspoon of turmeric powder, stir and add the chopped tomatoes. Now add 1 teaspoon each of chilli powder and cumin powder and 4 teaspoons of ground coriander, stir and add 200ml of water. Partially cover the pan and boil for 10 minutes.
Turn down the heat and add the monkfish cubes and simmer for 2 minutes. Stir the curry gently while it cooks as the fish cooks very quickly. Add 100ml of coconut milk, a little salt and a handful of chopped coriander leaves. Serve with plain boiled rice. So good.

Baked: Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Cut the monkfish fillets into 4 portions add a little salt and pepper then pan-fry until browned on both sides. Transfer to an oven proof dish, add a splash of cider to keep the fish moist and bake for about 10 minutes. Good with creamy mashed potato spiked with chopped chives and runner beans.