Visually, Tom Kitchin’s monkfish with a sumptuous saffron broth is a truly beautiful dish – impressive to serve when you are entertaining, but deceptively easy to make.
The trick is to get the timing right and make sure the fish is poached through before removing it from the stock. Saffron enhances the flavour of this dish to delicious effect
Ingredients
• 4 pieces monkfish tail fillet, about 150g each
• 100ml fish stock
• pinch saffron strands
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 30g unsalted butter, in pieces
• 1 tablespoon whipping cream
• 200g freshly podded peas
• 200g freshly podded broad beans, skinned
• 1 teaspoon chives, chopped
• 100g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 100g baby spinach leaves
Method
1 When you are ready to cook the monkfish, pour the fish stock into a fairly shallow, heavy-based pan and bring to the boil. Add the saffron strands, lower the heat and simmer gently for 2–3 minutes.
2 Season the monkfish on both sides with salt and pepper and then carefully lower into the saffron fish stock.
3 Poach very gently for 4–5 minutes on one side, then turn the fillets and cook on the other side for 4–5 minutes; the stock should barely simmer.
4 To check if your monkfish is cooked, gently insert a needle or fine skewer into the thickest part of the flesh; if it doesn’t meet with any resistance, the fish is cooked.
5 Once ready, remove the fish from the pan with a fish slice to a warmed plate; keep warm.
6 Simmer the poaching liquor until reduced by three-quarters, then whisk in the butter and cream. Add the peas and broad beans and simmer briefly until tender. Add the chives and lastly the tomatoes and baby spinach.
7 Remove from the heat.
8 To serve, ladle the saffron sauce and vegetables into warmed bowls or deep plates. Slice each monkfish fillet and arrange on top of the vegetables. Serve at once.
Recipe courtesy of Tom Kitchin, extracted from Kitchin Suppers
