Gujarati-style Monkfish Curry

Gujarati-style Monkfish Curry is a modern Fusion recipe for a classic Gujarati-style curry of roasted monkfish in a malai kory sauce served on a bed of mushrooms and beans. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Fusion version of: Gujarati-style Monkfish Curry.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

30 minutes

Total Time:

50 minutes

Additional Time:

(+30 minutes marinating)

Serves:

Rating:

Tags : Curry Wild Food Sauce Recipes Spice Recipes Bean Recipes Fusion Recipes Fusion Recipes

This is an Anglo-Indian fusion, a classic British fish in the form of Monkfish served in a Gujarati malai kory curry sauce. It really is delicious an a great way of serving-up one of my favourite fish, the monkfish. My wife really enjoyed this as a Valentine's day dinner for two. Timut pepper is the dried fruit of Zanthoxylum armatum, a member of the pepper family. It is a hot spice from Nepal’s Himalayas, with a distinct tingling sensation and a powerful citrus flavour, as such it's quite similar to China's Sichuan pepper, to which it's botanically related.

Ingredients:

For the marinade
2 tsp mild red chilli powder (eg Kashmiri chilli powder)
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp Kasundi mustard sauce or wholegrain mustard
1 tsp green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp chickpea flour
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp rapeseed oil, plus extra for basting if needed

For the monkfish curry:
2 x 250g pieces of monkfish tail, trimmed
Juice of ½ lemon

For the malai kory sauce:
3 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 black cardamom pod
2 green cardamom pods
1 bay leaf
1 green chilli, split
3 onions, coarsely chopped, fried in vegetable oil and blended into a paste
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp Kasundi mustard sauce or wholegrain mustard
2 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp red chilli powder
100ml fish stock
200ml coconut milk
¼ tsp green cardamom powder
salt

For the mushrooms and beans:
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
10g fresh root ginger, peeled and julienned
10g fresh root turmeric, peeled and julienned
1 green chilli, finely chopped
50g green beans, trimmed and blanched
100g mixed fresh wild mushrooms
1 tsp medium curry powder
small pinch ground timut pepper or ground Sichuan peppercorns
salt

To garnish:
handful of samphire, sautéed
finely chopped pickled silverskin onions
edible flowers, to garnish

Method:

For the monkfish, combine the ingredients for the marinade in a small bowl and mix to combine. Rub all over the monkfish then set aside to marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, pre-heat your oven to 220°C/200°C Fan/Gas Mark 7.

Once marinated, transfer the fish to a roasting tin, place in the centre of your pre-heated oven and cook for 12–15 minutes. Baste the fish midway through cooking using either the juices in the tin or some of the remaining marinade. Remove from the oven and drizzle with the lemon juice.

In the meantime, prepare the malai kory sauce. Heat the oil in a saucepan and when hot add in the cardamom pods, bay leaf and green chilli. Add the onion paste and fry for 2 minutes then stir in the ginger and garlic paste and fry for another 2–3 minutes, until the paste turns a light brown in colour. Now add the mustard, coriander and chilli powder along with half of the fish stock and then add the coconut milk. Season with salt to taste then bring to a boil. At this point adjust the consistency of the sauce by simmering down or adding more of the fish stock as preferred. Once at the desired thickness stir in the cardamom powder. Strain the sauce through a sieve, then set aside to keep warm.

For the mushrooms and beans, heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the mustard and cumin seeds for 1 minute. Add the ginger, turmeric, green chilli, beans and mushrooms and sauté for 2–3 minutes. Now stir in the curry powder, timut pepper and season with salt to taste.

Ladle the sauce onto two large plates and place the mushrooms and beans in the centre. Top with the fish and garnish with samphire, onions and edible flowers.

Serve immediately.