BBQ Monkfish
By Charlotte Pike
Let award-winning cookery writer and chef Charlotte Pike teach you how to make the most of your meaty monkfish tail meat in a few easy steps.
Monkfish pairs especially well with the gently smoky flavours and slightly charred texture imparted from the barbeque.
Serves 4
Ingredients
800g monkfish tail fillet (trimmed of grey membrane)
2 tbsp best olive oil
- Sea Salt
Method
Ensure your barbeque is at the correct temperature before cooking. If using charcoal, ensure they are white and there is no active flame burning. Heat a gas barbeque for around 10 minutes, ensuring it’s good and hot before cooking.
Brush the fish with a light film of oil, season with salt and put the fillet onto the hot barbeque, and cook for four minutes.
Carefully flip the fillet over and cook for another 2-3 minutes. The monkfish should be cooked in around 8 minutes. It will look lightly golden, as it will take on some of the smokiness of the barbeque.
Gently press the thickest part of the fillet with a knife and see if the flesh will break into flakes. You can cut it carefully and check if it is opaque throughout, too.
The internal temperature, should be 72C. Rest for five minutes before serving, so that the texture of the fish can soften.
If your barbeque bars have a tendency to stick, brush the bars with a little sunflower oil before cooking the fish. Serve hot.
About Your Monkfish
Monkfish is a highly favoured firm, meaty-textured fish, with a beautiful bright white colour to the flesh.
The monkfish itself is not much of a looker, but it tastes wonderful. Its anatomy is different from most of the fish we enjoy, and its tail and cheeks are the parts we eat. Allow approximately 175-200g per main course portion.
The monkfish tail can be cooked as a whole fillet and sliced when cooked, or cut into individual portions before cooking.
It also works very nicely cut into generous chunks and added to fish stews or curries. Just make sure it’s added in to the sauce and lightly simmered for 6-8 minutes until cooked, before serving.
Head to our COOKING page for more for great tips on how to make the most of your Amity catch from award-winning cookery writer, teacher and chef Charlotte Pike.
