Here's how to cook monkfish by chef Chantelle Nicholson from Tredwell's Restaurant.
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00:00Hi, I'm Chantelle Nicholson, Chef Patron of Treadwells in London, and today I'm going to
00:04be showing you how to cook monkfish. So we've got a beautiful monkfish tail which we're going
00:08to be serving with an anchovy aioli and some fresh asparagus. So here we have a monkfish
00:17tail that's been skinned and the head's been removed. I'm going to just take off a little
00:20bit of the membrane that's remaining and then slice it into tranches. So you just want to
00:26remove this membrane that you can see here just with a sharp knife just under the skin
00:34and along. So to cut through the bone you'll need a serrated knife. If you put the bone at
00:43the top of the fish it's much easier to cut through as well. Next we're going to salt the
00:59fish in rock salt for 10 minutes. This is going to serve a dual purpose by removing some of
01:04the moisture, because monkfish can be quite a wet fish, but also season it right the way
01:08through. Pop the monkfish in and pack it again with rock salt on top. Make sure you set a timer,
01:1710 minutes maximum. So pop it in the fridge, 10 minutes later we can rinse it off. So for the aioli we've
01:36got three egg yolks here. I'm going to grate one clove of garlic, we've also got some Dijon mustard,
01:42white wine vinegar and a touch of anchovy sauce for a bit of extra zing. So pop the mustard in,
01:50dash of white wine vinegar. Then we're going to whisk it to emulsify and add the oil. I generally
02:04tend to use a mix of slightly less intense olive oil, more like a pumice oil and just finish it
02:09with a little olive oil, otherwise it can be a little bit bitter. If you're not a fan of making
02:12mayonnaise or aioli by hand, you can use a stick blender and it works really well and a bit quicker.
02:17Once the eggs have gone a little bit pale and aerated, we're going to add the oil really slowly
02:21to start with. Once it's starting to thicken, you can add the oil a little bit quicker as well,
02:25because it's already got the first emulsification has occurred. That's all of the pumice oil. We're just
02:35going to finish with a touch of olive oil to add a bit more richness. And the anchovy sauce.
02:52Because the anchovy is quite salty, I'd suggest you taste it before you add any extra seasoning,
02:56just to make sure it's not too overly salted. There we have our aioli. So the fish was salting for 10
03:01minutes. We've just rinsed it off and patted it dry. Now we're about to start cooking. So a really hot pan,
03:06nice foaming butter before we put the monkfish in.
03:19Start it off on a high heat and then when it starts to colour, just turn it down a little bit.
03:23If you need to cool it down even further, just add a touch more butter, which will bring the temperature
03:27right down. So when you've got a nice golden colour on the bottom of the monkfish, turn it over
03:35and cook the other side. And we're going to baste the coloured side as well to get even more golden
03:40colour on it. So that's been in the pan, both sides, for about six to eight minutes. We're going
03:44to pop it in the oven, really hot oven, about 200 degrees, for about three to four minutes until
03:49it's cooked all the way through. So the monkfish has been in for another three minutes. To check and see
03:54if it's done, take a metal skewer, pop it down right beside the bone for a couple of seconds.
04:02Pull it out and if it's hot enough to touch, it's ready to go. I like to turn my monkfish on the bone
04:07because I feel it gives it a lot more flavour, but if you don't want it that way, just take it off.
04:15I'm just going to pop that on the plate.
04:17I'm just going to heat up some of the blanched asparagus I prepared earlier in that delicious monkfish butter.
04:32Pop that on the plate.
04:33And then a really large dollop of the anchovy aioli.
04:49And there we have it, the monkfish with asparagus and anchovy aioli.
05:01The monkfish with the anchovy aioli, the monkfish with the angelic aioli.
05:05I'll add that asparagus.
05:11Here we go.
05:16Here we go.
05:16Here we go.
05:17Here we go.
05:18Obviously the monkfish is filled with the angelic aioli.
05:20Anastasia has been filled with her, but the angelic aioli is filled with the angelic ii.