For even more flavour, cook these monkfish skewers over charcoal to get good colour on the fish and a wonderful amount of charring. Fish and meat always taste that much better when cooked over a flame.
Simon Rimmer and Tim Lovejoy's Sunday Brunch Cookbook: Rosemary skewered monkfish on pearl barley risotto
Print ThisIngredients
- 100ml olive oil
- Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 3–4 monkfish tail fillets, each 150–200g, fully trimmed (remove membrane and sinew)
- 4 long sprigs of rosemary
- 150g cooking chorizo, cut into 1cm cubes
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 500ml fish stock
- 250g pearl barley
- 100g frozen peas
- Salt and black pepper
Instructions
Mix the olive oil and lemon zest and juice in a dish or bowl, add the monkfish, season and set aside for at least 20 minutes.
Strip the leaves off the main stem of the rosemary sprigs (reserve until later), leaving the top leaves intact. Pierce a hole in the base of each fish fillet and push a stem right through like a skewer.
Fry the chorizo in a pan until crispy, then remove. Add the onion and garlic to the pan with the chorizo oil, then add enough of the stock to cover. Cook until just soft.
Add the pearl barley, season and add a ladleful of stock. When it has all been absorbed, add more stock. Keep adding stock in this way.
When the barley is three quarters cooked (the grain has swollen but the centre still has bite) add the chorizo back in, then stir in the peas. Finely chop the reserved rosemary leaves and add to the risotto.
Meanwhile, chargrill the fish in a grill pan or on a barbecue for about 8 minutes, turning occasionally so that it colours on the outside, and is firm to the touch but not rubbery.
Serve the risotto with the monkfish on top.
The Sunday Brunch Cookbook, Ebury Press, £20.
