I you were to judge it only by its smell at the fishmonger’s stall, it’s not something you’d ever try out. However, when properly prepared, it’s wonderfully tender. Pair it with flavors that can shout back at its aggressive taste, and it might start speaking nicely to your palate after all.
For once, this preparation actually contains alcohol—not much, but depending on your dietary preferences, you might want to adjust it. You can always evaporate the alcohol in the sauce after cooking the fish.
For 4 people:
For the pasta (if making it fresh):
- 300 g very fine semolina
- 3 eggs
- A tiny bit of water
Or:
- 400 g dry spaghetti
For the fish and sauce:
- 1 whole monkfish tail, skinned
- 10 cl orange juice
- 10 cl fresh cream
- 20-30 saffron threads
- 6 cl Cointreau
If making fresh pasta, start there. Kneading takes about ten minutes with a food processor, and you’ll want to let the dough rest, wrapped, in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
The key to this recipe is properly trimming the monkfish. There’s nothing worse than a rubbery piece of monkfish. Carefully fillet it, removing as much of the thin surface fascia as possible. You should end up with something like this:
Next, cut each fillet in two and set them aside while preparing the cooking mixture.
In a bowl, whisk together the cream, orange juice, Cointreau, and saffron threads. Add a bit of salt to taste, keeping in mind that the mixture will also coat the pasta.
Seal your fish pieces along with the mixture in an airtight vacuum bag. Cook sous vide at 58°C for 1 hour 15 minutes.
Yes, 1 hour 15 minutes—no shortcuts with low-temperature cooking. Monkfish and bottom-dwelling fish in general are prone to hosting some less-than-pleasant parasites.
Once cooking has started, you can roll out your spaghetti using your preferred method. Fresh pasta requires about 3 minutes of cooking; dried pasta takes about 10 minutes.
If you want to evaporate the alcohol after the fish is done, plan for an additional 5 minutes to boil the cooking juices in a saucepan.
the assembly is intuitive, create a nest in a flat-bottomed bowl with the pasta. Place a piece of fish on top, and pour the cooking juices over it, ensuring the saffron threads cling to the fish.
