Beer Battered Monkfish with Spiced Crushed Peas

Serves:  4

Preparation:  45 minutes
Cooking:   45 minutes

.
Monkfish is just wonderful cooked in this ultra light beer batter.  Served with homemade curry sauce, spiced crushed peas and fluffy oven chips and the everyday ‘fish and chips’ turns into something special.  Not complicated to make and can be made in stages but looks and tastes amazing.

 

 

 


Ingredients

800 g monkfish fillet with membrane removed
20 curry leaves for garnish

Batter
300 g self-raising flour
300 ml lager
7 g yeast
Pinch of Salt
Chips
1 kg of Maris Piper potatoes (cut into chips)
Cooking Oil
Sea salt and pepper
Curry Sauce
50 g raisins
50 g dried apricots
50 g dates
350 ml malt vinegar
1 onion (sliced)
3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1 tsp each of turmeric, ginger, cumin
6 Cardamon pods
2 tsp of garam masala
1 Tbsp of English mustard
70 g butter
150 ml water
Spiced Peas
300 g frozen peas
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried mint
1 tsp chilli flakes
100 g butter
1 Tbsp finely chopped chives

Allergens: For those of you with allergies please remove or substitute accordingly

Method

Portion the monkfish into big chunks (3 per person so 12 in total) or smaller if you prefer, and season.

Beer Batter
Put the flour into a mixing bowl, add a good pinch of salt, and the yeast.  Slowly add the larger a little at a time and mix thoroughly until smooth.  Set aside to rest.
Oven chips

Peel and cut Maris piper potatoes into chips.  Par boil and drain, now lay them out on a non-stick roasting tray.  Coat with oil and place into a hot oven (220c/200Fan/Gas7) for about 30 minutes, turning once.
Curry sauce
Place the malt vinegar into a saucepan together with the raisins, dates and dried apricots and boil for about 5 minutes.  Put aside off the heat.
Slice the onion and put it into a saucepan to sweat, add a good knob of butter and the garlic.  When the onions are soft but not brown, add the garam masala, turmeric ginger, cumin cardamon pods and mustard.
Allow the onions and spices to cook for a further 5 minutes, add the water, dried fruit and vinegar mixture, and simmer for a further 10 minutes.
Blend to a smooth purée and then pass this mixture through a sieve, add a good chunk of butter, about 50 g, and whisk in.  Set the curry sauce aside and keep warm.
Spiced peas
Cook the peas in salted water. Drain and return to the pan, adding the butter, dried mint, cumin, black pepper, chilli flakes, and cook for a couple of minutes, this will soften the spices.  Put the mixture into a blender and pulse until the peas look crushed, but still have some texture.  Put into a dish to keep warm, add the finely chopped chives and stir through.  Keep warm.

Ready to Eat – Time to Cook the FIsh 
Coat the monkfish chunks in the batter and deep fry in batches of 4 for, about 4-5 minutes or until golden and crispy.  Remove from the oil, drain on a kitchen towel or rack, and keep warm.  Deep fry the curry leaves and drain on kitchen towel (use these for garnish).

Serve
Place a mound of peas onto the plate, top this with the fried curry leaves.  Put the monkfish portions around the peas and serve the chips and curry sauce separately.

Enjoy 

This recipe was created by Pete Thompson for Steve Hatt Fishmongers.