Monkfish stew with shallot & tomato sauce

For ➍
600 g monkfish fillet
4 shallots
butter
4 dl tomato passata
pepper & salt
finely chopped parsley

Cut the monkfish into 2.5 cm thick pieces. Peel the shallots and finely chop them. Melt butter in a pan and fry the fish. Sprinkle with the finely chopped shallot and add the passata. Cook for 15 m on a low heat until the fish is done. Season with salt and pepper. Finish with the parsley.
Serve with fries or bread.

Monkfish with blood orange butter & fennel

For ➍
2 fennel bulbs*
4 tbs olive oil
salt & black pepper
4 chunks monkfish** with skin, 150 g each
juice 1 blood orange
juice 1 lime
100 g cold butter, cut in cubes

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Slice the fennel. Put the fennel in an oven tin. Sprinkle with half the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and bake 25 m at 200°C.

Heat the remaining olive oil in a pan. Bake the monkfish on the skin side. Set aside and keep warm.

Pour the juices in a sauce pan. Reduce to half.

Lower the heat. Beat the butter into the juice until the sauce becomes thick and shiny. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve catfish with blood orange sauce and roasted fennel. Decorate with a slice of blood orange.

*Or use green asparagus.
**Or an another firm fish.

Catalan monkfish & mussels

For ➍
4 chunks (200 g) monkfish*
60 g flour
½ ts ground cumin
½ ts sweet smoked paprika
sea salt & ground pepper
3 tbs olive oil
1 kg mussels**
2 cloves garlic, crushed
15 cl sherry
4 tbs chopped flat-leaf parsley
400 g tin of butter beans, rinsed & drained
2 tbs butter
tomato bread***

Mix the flour, paprika and cumin in a shallow dish. Season with sea salt and pepper.

Dust fish in the seasoned flour on both sides and shake off excess.

Heat olive oil in pan over a medium high heat. Fry fish on both sides until just cooked. Don't let the flour burn.

Transfer fish to a plate and keep warm while you cook the mussels.

Increase the heat to high and pour in the sherry, garlic, most of the parsley and mussels. Give it a quick stir.

Cover with lid and cook over high heat, shaking the pan until mussels have opened. Discard any unopened mussels. Add the butter and just swirl it all together.

Tip any juices from the fish that was resting into the mussels. Place fish in a shallow dish or soup bowl and spoon the mussels, beans and juices over the fish. Season with freshly ground pepper and garnish with a a bit of extra parsley.

Serve with a slice of (sourdough) bread, Catalan tomato bread for instance.

*Or any firm white fish.
**Use clams instead.
***Optional.

Monkfish with samphire @ wok

For ➋
30 cl fish stock
2 chunks monkfish, 200 g each*
150 g samphire
15 g butter
pepper

Heat the stock. Put the fish in the stock, for 8 to 10 m. Avoid boiling.***
Clean the samphire with fresh water. Remove all brown stalks.
Heat the butter in a wok. Put the samphire in. Stir and fry for 4 m.****
Sprinkle some pepper on the fish. Put the fish on the samphire. Serve with mashed potatoes.

*Use redfish or any firm white fish instead.
**Alternatively, cook in the microwave with just a sprinkle of stock.
***You can slice a few shallots, melt butter, stir and fry for 1 m, add samphire and stir and fry for 2 to 4 m.

Samphire was originally called 'sampierre' after the French 'Saint-Pierre', Saint Peter, the patron of the fishermen. Samphire grows mainly in salty, rocky places and marshes along the Northern shores of Europe.
In French it is called salicot, salicorne or passe-pierre, as the varieties have different names.
Read more monkfish recipes: anglerfish in gueuze.
Read more sea vegetables recipes.

Monkfish in gueuze

For ➍
800 g monkfish
1 stalk leek, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
35 cl gueuze*
50 g butter
1 sprig thyme, chopped
1 ts parsley, chopped
1 ts chervil, chopped
(sea) salt & (freshly ground black) pepper

Cut the fish in chunks.

Melt the butter in a skillet, large enough to hold all of the fish. Add the leek, celery and onion and fry lightly.

Add the fish. Brown lightly.

Add salt, pepper, garlic and thyme.

Add gueuze and let simmer for 15 m.

Add parsley and chervil.

Lift fish out, keep warm.

Filter sauce and thicken a bit.

Serve with steamed potatoes. Drink a good gueuze with it.

Belgian gueuze (or geuze) is a slightly sour beer, traditionally brewed around Brussels. Mort subite, 'sudden death', is one of the most famous gueuze breweries, best drunk at the Brussels' café with the same name. (The name comes from the swift final step in a card game, popular at the café in the 1920's, when it was visited by civil servants from the nearby Belgian National Bank).

More monkfish recipes: monkfish with samphire.