Monkfish with a Red Pepper Sauce

Recipe for: Peppered MONKFISH with Red Pepper Sauce

Ingredients:

• 500-900g monkfish, off the bone, deveined, cut into large chunks/ rounds
• 2 tablespoons mixed whole peppercorns, ground roughly in a mortar
• 4 tblsps olive oil
• 2 tblsps plain flour, seasoned with salt
• For the red-pepper sauce:
• 1 tblsp olive oil
• 2 medium red peppers, de-seeded & cut into strips
• 2 medium tomatoes, skinned & chopped, (or use two from a tin)
• 1 clove garlic, peeled & minced
• 3 anchovy fillets, chopped
• Salt & freshly-milled black pepper
• 3 tblsps balsamic vinegar

 Method:

1. make the sauce first by heating the oil in a medium-sized saucepan, adding the strips of red pepper & tossing them around constantly in the hot all, till they start to catch
2. add the tomatoes, garlic & anchovies, stirring to mix
3. lower the heat right down, cover & let the mixture stew very slowly for about 25 minutes, or until the peppers are completely soft.  You may need to stir a couple of times.
4. pour the mixture into blender & whizz to a coarse puree
5. taste & add salt & fresh-ground pepper, then the balsamic vinegar
6. set aside – you can serve the sauce cold, or warm it through to serve hot
7. now cook the fish.  Heat the oil in a large heavy frying pan big enough to take the fish pieces
8. roll the pieces of fish in the seasoned flour, then in the rough-ground pepper, pressing the bits into all sides
9. fry the fish in one or two batches for about two minutes each side, until tinged with brown
10. to serve, put a puddle of the red pepper sauce onto each plate, then carefully place the cooked fish pieces into the puddle

 What else you need to know:

1. it looks complicated, but it’s very easy
2. the dish has quite a zing to it & looks impressive