Monkfish may be very scary looking, but they'll delight your tastebuds
There’s something both beautiful and sublime about the idea of seafood. Shimmering yellowfin tuna knifing their way through crystal clear waters; sleek swordfish spinning and soaring above choppy ocean waves; grouper gliding effortlessly, carried along by invisible, abyssal currents.
These lofty imaginings of seafood’s beauty and grace, however, are only for an exclusive club of water dwelling vertebrates. A velvet rope hangs between the fish we glamorize, like salmon and snapper, and the fish that are uglier than a bucket full of armpits, like the humble monkfish.
Monkfish are not just ugly, they are terrifying. These denizens of the briny deep aren’t just nightmare inducing, they look like William S. Burroughs willed a hallucination into being after a weeklong morphine and Tramadol binge. Taxonomically, monkfish are on the bottom-dwelling terrors branch of the anglerfish family tree. This means that aside from having a flattened, oversized head and a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth, a monkfish has a fishing lure growing out of its face, just above its mouth.
In case you didn’t catch that, it has a bloody fishing lure growing out of its face!
When it lures a fish in close enough, the monkfish goes for the murder grab and opens its gruesome death maw so quickly that a vacuum is created, sucking its prey into two waiting rows of razor sharp teeth. Monkfish are opportunistic and eat almost anything that gets near their mouth, including soda cans, cuttlefish and even other monkfish - sort of like John Travolta.
So imagine an animal that started off as nothing but teeth, jaws, and hunger pangs, but evolution said “screw it” and in the last thousand years decided to give it a thick, meaty tail that tastes like lobster, and a liver that tastes like seafoam fois gras. How do we know this sea monster tastes like lobster and fois gras? Because some hero, long lost to history, got hungry enough to eat one of these murder fish and realized that their liver is smooth, buttery and freaking delicious with scallions and ponzu sauce.
Of course, man cannot live by monkfish liver alone, so our intrepid food explorer found that while the head and body are mostly skin, bones, and guts, the tail is composed entirely of two thick, meaty fillets of mild, firm fish resting on either side of an easily removed spine. The monkfish’s tail is its sweet, succulent moneymaker.
The average monkfish filet is about 1/4 pound of thick, firm flesh. There’s a thin layer of silverskin you’ll want to remove before cooking, but other than that, monkfish filets are ready to slice, sear, grill or pan fry straight from your favorite fishmonger.
Cooked monkfish isn’t flakey like most fish. It has a texture similar to cooked lobster and has a mild flavor (again, similar to lobster) that lends itself to a wide variety of dishes, especially ones with bright, acidic sauces. Its firm texture makes monkfish perfect for the grill, skewers and kebabs since it doesn’t fall apart easily and it’s an ideal candidate for marinades because of its uncanny ability to soak up flavors and stand up to the heavy acids and enzymes in most marinades.
But the best reason to eat the tail of this demonic fish overlord spawned from the fears and darkest nightmares of humanity - is the taste. Monkfish is easily one of the most delicious ocean fish you can buy. Although it’s not commonly stocked in your local Food Mart, you can ask the seafood department at Whole Foods, Publix or the good folks at Asian Food & Gifts to order you some and prepare yourself for the best tasting sea monster you’ve ever eaten.
Ingredients
- 5 tbsp butter
- The juice of 1 lime
- 2 fillets Monkfish (about 6-8 oz each) skinned and boned
- 2 oz canola oil
- 2 tbsp fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
- 2 spring onions, (1/4 cup) chopped
- 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
- 1 oz water
- Basmati rice to serve
Instructions
Heat the oil in a large pan over high heat. Add the monkfish, reduce the heat to medium and fry the monkfish 4 minutes on each side. Set aside to keep warm.
Place the butter, water and chili sauce in a separate small pan and bring to a boil. Add the lime juice and chopped spring onion - cook for 30 seconds, then add the coriander and remove from the heat.
Spoon the sauce over the monkfish and serve with steamed rice.
Mike McJunkin is a native Chattanoogan currently living abroad who has trained chefs, owned and operated restaurants. Join him on Facebook at facebook.com/SushiAndBiscuits