A big welcome to many more new readers! This week, I’m putting my spin on spiced monkfish. I decided to take this dish in a different direction from the original, drawing on my experience of living in the Middle East.
My recipe uses Baharat, an all-purpose spice mix that enhances the sweetness of monkfish and marries well with the roasted cauliflower purée, which reminded me of tahini with its rich, nutty flavours.
It also allows the opportunity to brighten things visually with a pomegranate tabbouleh while keeping the flavour profile of the entire dish consistent - addressing one of the issues I had with the original recipe.
A few things I hope you’ll take away from this recipe:
The complexity of cauliflower - I despised cauliflower growing up, because my experience of it consisted mostly of boiled cauliflower in terrible school meals. Deeply caramelising the cauliflower and roasting it further in the oven brings out a great richness and depth of flavour, and we get to taste it in two different forms in this dish.
Baharat - This workhorse of Mediterranean, Levantine and Middle Eastern kitchens is great with pretty much everything - fish, chicken, lamb, soups, salads, you name it.
More sous vide magic - Sous vide is like a cheat code for fish. I tried several other methods - oven roasting, steaming, pan frying (monkfish was on the menu a lot last week). They were all tasty, but none of them could replicate the meatiness of the sous vide method.
If you do try the recipe, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Happy cooking!
Spiced Monkfish with Roasted Cauliflower Two Ways
Serves 2
Total time: 3 hours
Note: the recipe makes enough purée and tabbouleh for 4-6 portions, so to scale up, all you need to do is add more monkfish and cauliflower steaks.
Spiced monkfish
Total time: 2h / Active time: 30m
Equipment:
Sous vide (Oven alternative: instant read thermometer)
Mesh strainer (recommended)
Ingredients:
2 small monkfish tails, or 1 large monkfish tail (~300g per person), skin removed, cleaned, with fins cut off (use a pair of kitchen scissors)
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp fine sea salt
1 tbsp unsalted butter
Baharat spice (store-bought, pre-mixed Baharat is fine. Alternatively, you can make your own, which is very easy, and will taste superior)
2 tbsp coriander seeds, 2 tbsp cumin, 2 tbsp black pepper, 2 tbsp allspice, 2 tsp cardamom, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp cloves, 1 tsp cinnamon
For best results, toast whole spices in a dry frying pan on medium heat until they smell fragrant and toasty (3-4 mins) and grind them in a spice grinder.
It’s totally fine to mix whole + pre-ground spices, and it’s totally fine if you don’t have a couple of the spices, or want to adjust the quantities - we’re just trying to hit those coriander, cumin, and pepper notes.
Method:
Pat dry the monkfish tails with paper towels. Mix sugar and salt in a small bowl, and rub evenly over the monkfish. Leave to cure in the fridge for 1h 30m, uncovered, on a wire rack above a baking tray (a plate is fine too).
The sugar-salt cure will help to firm up the monkfish. A plain salt cure works too, but I find the sugar helps to accentuate the natural sweetness of the fish.
Rinse off the cure under cold running water, and pat dry. Using a sharp knife, cut the monkfish into 1.5-inch wide cross-sections through the bone, making steaks (or darnes) - see picture below.
Sprinkle the monkfish steaks with 2 tbsp of Baharat, or enough to coat evenly. A mesh strainer is helpful here.
Place in a Ziploc bag and seal using the immersion method, or seal in a sous vide vacuum bag. Cook in the sous vide at 60°C (140°F) for 15 minutes.
Oven alternative: Pan fry in 1 tbsp butter for 2 minutes on each side in an ovenproof non-stick frying pan, then oven roast at 150°C (300°F) for 5-7 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 55°C (131°F) on a instant read thermometer. Timing can vary significantly, so check the temperature frequently. Skip Step 5 below and serve. If your frying pan is not ovenproof, transfer to a baking tray for the oven stage.
Heat 1 tbsp butter in a large frying pan on high heat until melted and foaming. Remove the monkfish from the bag, and cook on each side for about 90 seconds until lightly golden. Plate and serve immediately. I removed the spine from some of the monkfish steaks to plate one side with the white meat facing upwards for contrast.
Cauliflower purée
Total time: 1h
Note: you will have more purée than you need. It will keep in the fridge for a week although the flavour will fade, so I don’t recommend making it in advance. It pairs well with white fish, chicken or pork. Or if you’re weird like me, you can have it on bread as a peanut butter replacement.
Equipment:
Blender
Large, heavy-bottomed frying pan
Large saucepan
Ingredients:
1 medium cauliflower, around 700g
125g unsalted butter
175ml double cream (heavy cream)
Fine sea salt, to taste
Method:
Chop the cauliflower into small pieces, about 0.5-1 inch in width.
Heat butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until melted and foaming.
Add the cauliflower pieces, turning every few minutes with a spatula. Turn the heat down to medium when the edges get dark brown, to avoid burning. It’s done when the cauliflower pieces have absorbed the butter, and are deeply caramelised and fragrant, about 15 minutes (see picture below).
Go by sight and smell, rather than exact timings. This is also a good stage to wash up a couple of dishes as the cooking isn’t very active.
Take the cauliflower off the heat, add to a large saucepan with the 175ml of double cream, and heat on low, stirring frequently for 7-8 minutes, until the cauliflower breaks down into a pulp.
Purée the cauliflower and cream mixture in a blender for 3 minutes until very smooth. Add a little more cream if it needs more liquid to blend. Visually, it should have the appearance of smooth peanut butter, but with a lighter texture.
Pass through a sieve into a bowl and season to taste with fine sea salt. Cover and allow to cool to room temperature (you can use the fridge to cool it down faster).
When ready to serve, spoon a large dollop of purée in the middle of a plate, and swipe across using an offset spatula. Repeat with a second offset dollop (see picture below).
Roasted cauliflower
Total time: 30m
Equipment:
Cast iron skillet or ovenproof frying pan
Ingredients:
1 small cauliflower
2 tbsp Baharat spice (see above)
2 tbsp butter (Vegetable oil is fine, but butter is going to help get more colour on the cauliflower, thanks to the milk solids in the butter that will caramelise from the heat.)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F).
Cut two cauliflower steaks from the centre, slightly less than 1 inch thick. The central stem should hold the florets together. Trim any leaves still attached.
Sprinkle the steaks with 2 tbsp of Baharat, or enough to coat evenly. A mesh strainer is helpful here.
Heat butter in the cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until melted and foaming. Pan fry the cauliflower for 3 minutes on each side until partly charred.
Transfer skillet to oven and roast for 15 minutes. Serve warm.
Pomegranate tabbouleh
Apologies in advance to any tabbouleh purists. I know there are tons of variations and regional differences, and even the addition of pomegranate can be controversial in some households! This is a simple version that I learned to make.
Total time: 30m
Equipment:
If you don’t own a knife, a chopping board, and a bowl, you’re probably in the wrong place
Ingredients:
100g parsley, tough stems removed (or vaguely, a large bunch; the 100g refers to the net weight of the parsley after the tough stems are removed)
25g mint
1 medium spring onion
2 plum tomatoes
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice (or about half a lemon’s worth)
1 tsp Baharat (see above)
3 tbsp cooked bulgur (couscous is… fine, I guess, but may elicit a raised eyebrow from some people. I just cook a quarter cup of bulgur according to the packet instructions, and measure out what I need)
Fine sea salt, to taste
3 tbsp pomegranate seeds (technically they’re arils, but whatever)
Note: nothing needs to be super exact here. Ultimately, it’s a fresh parsley salad, just taste and adjust frequently and everything will be fine.
Method:
Remove the skins from the tomatoes - score a small cross on the bottom, blanch for 15 seconds in boiling water, and peel in ice cold water. Here’s an instructional video just in case. Remove the seeds and finely chop the tomatoes.
Wash the parsley, mint, and spring onion in cold water. Dry in a salad spinner or using paper towels. Chop very finely.
Tricks & Techniques: A sharp knife is essential to chopping herbs. Maintain a gliding, slicing motion instead of simply chopping downwards. Start by holding the bunch of herbs in a tight roll, and slice very fine ribbons. Then rotate 90 degrees and chop finely. Here’s a video.
Mix all the ingredients EXCEPT the pomegranate together in a bowl. To serve, spoon small mounds of tabbouleh around the plate, and garnish with pomegranate.
To assemble and finish
Swipe purée
Spoon tabbouleh around plate
Place cauliflower steak
Place monkfish
Timing Grid
This grid is designed to help you plan your cooking if you’re making multiple components from the dish. The coloured blocks indicate active cooking time.
I’ve tried to be fairly generous with the timings, as there is a fair amount of prep work involved in this recipe. If you have strong knife skills, you will probably be ahead of schedule.
Equipment and Ingredients
Sous vide - Anova is the only brand I’ve used, and starts at £129 for the Nano. I have an old first gen Anova that’s still going strong. Amazon has cheaper options starting from £45, but I can’t attest to their quality. I know I’m a broken record, but a sous vide is truly one of the best pieces of kitchen equipment you can own - it makes guaranteed perfect food (it is a revelation for chicken breast and fish), and it saves a ton of time because you don’t have to watch it. If you need more convincing, Serious Eats has a great piece.
I also use a Rubbermaid 12L container with a hole I cut out of the lid. If I were buying a sous vide setup today, I’d get a sous vide-specific container (they didn’t exist back in the day). Anova-specific ones go for about £25 on Amazon.
Thermapen thermometer - Just trust me, bite the bullet, and pay the extra it costs over the cheap knockoff thermometers. This is one of those ‘Buy Nice or Buy Twice’ situations. Thermapen have a sale right now where it’s reduced to £30, and in addition, for every purchase, Thermapen will donate £10 to the NHS. At time of writing, it’s more expensive on Amazon.
Tamis sieve- I find these much more versatile than conical sieves, because you can push purées and thicker sauces through them more easily. Also great for sifting flour.
Offset spatula - Aka angled spatula. Also useful for frosting cakes.
Dislaimer: this is a little awkward, but I want to be 100% transparent so that you can have full confidence in my recommendations. I get paid from Amazon links as part of the Amazon Associate program. I will always check to see if the same product is cheaper elsewhere. I don’t receive payment from any other websites I link to. I will only ever link to brands and products that I personally use.