Monkfish With Meat Sauce Recipes

MONKFISH WITH MEAT SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to at least 450 degrees. Place a cast-iron or other ovenproof skillet inside. Put half the butter in a small saucepan, and turn the heat to medium-high. Add carrot and celery, and stir; a minute later, add onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables brown, less than 10 minutes. Be careful not to let them burn. Stir in tomato paste if you like, then broth. Bring to a boil, adjust heat and let mixture simmer about 10 minutes.
• Strain mixture, pressing on vegetables to extract their liquid, and return to medium-high heat. Bring to a boil; let boil until less than half a cup of thick liquid remains.
• Meanwhile, season fish with salt and pepper. Carefully remove hot pan from oven, and add oil; swirl to coat bottom. Add fish, and roast 5 minutes. Remove from oven, and carefully pour liquid accumulated around fish into simmering sauce; turn fish over, and return to oven for 5 minutes while bringing sauce to a boil. Reduce sauce until it is thick and syrupy and measures about 1/2 cup. When a thin-bladed knife inserted into thickest part of fish meets little resistance, remove it from oven.
• Add remaining butter to sauce, and spoon over fish to serve.

ROAST MONKFISH WITH MEAT SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 500°F or as close to that as it will get. It's best to remove the thin membrane clinging to the monkfish before cooking. Just pull and tug on it while cutting through it with a paring knife and it will come off; you don't have to be too compulsive about this task, but try to get most of it off.
• Put a cast-iron or other ovenproof skillet or roasting pan in the oven while it is heating. Put half the butter in a small saucepan and turn the heat to medium-high. Add the carrot and celery and stir; a minute later, add the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables brown-be careful not to let them burn-less than 10 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste if you're using it, then the broth or stock. Bring to a boil, then adjust the heat so the mixture simmers for about 10 minutes.
• Strain the broth, pressing on the vegetables to extract their liquid. Return to medium-high heat and bring to a boil; let boil until reduced by about three-quarters, or until less than 1/2 cup of thick liquid remains. Season the fish with salt and pepper.
• Meanwhile, once you've strained the broth and begun reducing it, carefully remove the hot pan from the oven and add the olive oil to it; swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the fish and roast for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully pour the liquid that has accumulated around the fish into the simmering sauce; once again, bring it to a boil and reduce until thick, syrupy, and about 1/2 cup. Turn the fish and roast it for another 5 minutes, or until a thin-bladed knife inserted into its thickest part meets little resistance.
• Stir the remaining butter into the sauce, then serve the fish with the sauce spooned over it.
• Roast Monkfish with Asian Meat Sauce: To season the stock with Asian aromatic vegetables rather than traditional European ones, substitute 10 slices peeled fresh ginger, a lemongrass stalk, and 5 scallions for the carrot, celery, and onion. Omit the tomato paste.