Curry Crusted Monkfish

This is quite an old recipe, actually I made it on New Years Eve. I love to eat out on special occasions, it's the joy of eating something amazing that was cooked for you to take a break from cooking. Recently however, my boyfriend and I have decided, every once in a while, to use the special occasional to buy an ingredient we wouldn't normally due to high cost of limited availability and make a special meal at home. 

I've always wanted to cook with monkfish and my boyfriend has always wanted to try it. So when we were in a fishmonger in Twickenham, we grabbed the opportunity to cook with this ingredient. My boyfriend went on a de-tour to get back home so I spent the 20 minute journey researching recipes to see what I should make with it. We wanted something spicy rather so I moved quickly away from the Rick Stein recipes and settled on the Great British Menu dish that Glynn Purnell made a couple of years ago. 

I adapted the recipe slightly, eliminated the pickled carrots and used green lentils instead of red. I also don't own a vacuum packing machine so decided to pan fry then finish my monkfish in the oven, which meant experimenting a little with the timing. This is still a wonderfully lightly spiced creamy dish and it really brings out the flavour in the monkfish. We felt it was the perfect choice for this special fish.

Ingredients
Salt
2x Monkfish fillets
Butter
1/2 cup of green Lentils
cooking Oil
1/2 Onion, chopped
1/2 tbsp Curry powder
1 cup of Chicken Stock
1/2 red Chilli, finely sliced
2 tbsp fresh Coriander
1 tin Coconut milk
2 tbsp Coconut flesh

for the Masala Spice Mix
1/8 Cinnamon stick
1 tsp Fenugreek seeds
1/4 tsp Fennel seeds
3/4 tsp black Mustard seeds
2 Cloves
1/2 tsp Coriander seeds
3/4 tsp Cumin seeds

Recipe
 Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Sprinkle the salt over the monkfish fillets and leave for 5-6 minutes to remove moisture. Wash the salt off thoroughly under cold running water. Wrap the washed monkfish in a clean tea towel and leave overnight in the fridge.

For the lentils, sweat the chopped onion in a drizzle of oil for 4-5 minutes, or until softened. Stir in the mild curry powder. Add the lentils, stir well, then cover with chicken stock and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the lentils are tender. When cooked, stir in the chilli and coriander and season, to taste, with salt. Set aside.

For the masala spice mix, place all of the spice mix ingredients into a pestle and mortar and ground to a powder. Transfer to a plate and then roll the monkfish pieces in the mixture.  Melt the butter in a frying pan until foaming. Sear fish on both sides for 2-3 minutes, or until golden-brown and crisp all over. Put the pan in the oven for 10-12 minutes, then cover with foil.

Now for the sauce, pour the coconut milk into a pan and add a pinch of salt. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until reduced by half. Heat a frying pan and toast the thinly sliced coconut strips until golden-brown and fragrant. To serve, spoon the lentils onto a serving plate and place the monkfish on top. Drizzle over a bit of the reduced coconut milk, then garnish with the toasted sliced coconut, fresh coriander.