Monkfish Cheeks Recipe | Seafood Recipes | How to cook Monkfish
My BFF Dani introduced me to a new food e-tailer/retailer supplier that she is using a lot. I had never heard of them before so did some research and started to spot produce I have never seen before.
That sort of thing always intrigues and excites me as it gets my cooking grey-matter working. It also made me reach out to Bootles and introduce myself to one of the main guys there, Ben, and we are now chatting about cooking together one day and collaborating – I love that sort of thing. So thanks Dani for the 1st intro.
On the 1st day of my Bootles research, I espied Monkfish Cheeks. WTF. I have cooked the tails but never the cheeks. In fact, I have never even seen the cheeks on sale before. I had to have a crack.
This is how this recipe came about. A stunner of a recipe for these beautiful Monkfish Cheeks. Almost scallop in texture to start but changing to a mix of pork fillet and crab claw when cooked – I kid you not. Succulent, firm, sweet and super-juicy. An amazing piece of fish to cook with.
In my head therefore I thought to myself – let’s treat this like a scallop. Pan-fry it in some butter. Treat it gently. Treat it with respect. It’s how to cook Monkfih too, so made double-sense to me.
1st things 1st though. These cheeks are covered in this skin, gel, membrane thing. It’s one ugly fish, so no surprises there really. It looks like this is going to be tough when cooked, almost like the silver-skin you get in steaks. So that has to come out.
Get your sharpest knife and trim off that membrane on all the cheeks. It’s a ball-ache, but a necessary one. Check the video to see me doing that. Your very pairing knife with a sharp point would be a recommendation. Give the cheeks a good rinse in cold water and that then gives you a beautiful pile of these round firm fish fillets.
Marinate the cheeks 1st – in a bowl for two hours plus;
– 1/2 cup lime juice
– sea salt & cracked black pepper
– 1x rasher of streaky bacon
– Olive oil (black truffle if you have it)
– Sea salt & cracked black pepper
Here we go for the recipe – easier this way I think for this one. Breaking it down;
Citrus Burnt Butter;
– 1x knob salted butter
– A good pinch cracked black pepper
– 2x Tbsp lime juice
1- Get a small pan on the heat and add in all the ingredients
2; Melt down the butter and then lower the heat
3; Keep that on the heat until the butter is nutty brown colour – out the pan into a small bowl to stop it burning and set aside
Prepping the cheeks;
– 1 cup of plain flour into a bowl
– Season with a good pinch or three of sea salt & cracked black pepper
1- Take the cheeks from the marinade and dry them on some paper towel
2- Dust them in the seasoned flour – not too much, just a dusting to protect it from burning
Cooking the cheeks
1- In a skillet pan add a good knob of garlic butter (or butter and 2-3 cloves of finely chopped garlic)
2- Add in a good glug of Olive oil – this stops the butter from burning
3- Throw in a couple of springs of fresh thyme
4- In with the floured cheeks – fry these off gently until golden brown and then flip to the other side and repeat
5- This should be 2-3 minutes per side for the bigger, thicker cheeks and about half that for the thinner cheeks
Plating the cheeks
1- Pop the beautifully plump, golden-brown, crisp cheek on a platter
2- Lay the sprig of thyme on top
3- If you have them, decorate with some edible flowers
4- Drizzle some of the burnt butter on top
5- Serve away
It would also go really nicely with some grilled vine tomatoes – drizzle them with a little olive oil and season with sea salt & cracked black pepper – on a baking tray and in the oven for 10 minutes or even fry them in the same pan as the cheeks.
So there you have it.
My very 1st time cooking Monkfish cheeks, and my very 1st recipe for them.
Ben @ Bootles I hope I have done you and your produce proud. 1st time for everything haha. The consumer’s feedback was excellent, which makes me very happy. Plus they looked damned good plated up.
Monkfish Cheeks Recipe | Seafood Recipes | How to cook Monkfish – ENJOY!!!
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