The Sea Monster is back!

I have mentioned in previous ‘blogs’ of my love of both Monkfish and Samphire – well here is a simple and totally delicious recipe which combines these two ‘treasures’ with a few other special ingredients, to make Rosemary Infused Monkfish Chunks in Air Dried Ham Parcels.

Monkfish, as it is commonly known in the UK, because of its ugly appearance is sometimes referred to as either Sea Monster or Sea Monk. It is mainly found in the North Atlantic and presented in UK fish mongers in the form of fillets. However in Spain it is sold in steak form with the central bone in much the same way we buy halibut steaks.

The recipe for the monkfish/ham bit is here. The fish chunks are coated in warm rosemary infused oil and wrapped in any air dried ham. The recipe uses Parma ham - I prefer Serrano and to me it is just as good and cheaper! This link explains a little about the different air dried hams. Then these parcels are baked in the oven with cherry tomatoes to make a mouth watering mix of flavours.

I then prefer to serve these parcels and tomatoes on a bed of samphire. As I previously mentioned in another blog, I simply place the samphire in a colander, wash well with cold water and then pour a kettle of boiling water over the samphire – that’s it!

So go for it, you will be delighted with this great yet simple recipe and let me know if you liked it. By the way, I have found an exciting new monkfish recipe where the monkfish medallions are baked in a lemon and herb crust – I will let you know how it tastes after I make it this weekend!