Today’s Exercise: 33 minutes on Wii Fit, 10,500 steps
I have never cooked with fish before. Phew it’s better getting that out into the open. Ok I have made a pasta bake with tinned tuna and cooked putanesca using anchovies in a jar NEVER have I ever cooked using an actual fillet of fish. The first thing that really struck me was how cold it made my hands. I have handled refrigerated meat before but the fish actually makes you feel cold to the bone.
In any case with the first piece of fish that I have handled being so *cough* expensive this really couldn’t go wrong. Monkfish itself is rather interesting, especially the etymology of its name. Supposedly it comes from when a large specimen washed up on a European shore and, because of the elongated lower jaw, it resembled a monk. Due to this the creature became known as the ‘sea monk’. When a live version of this fish was found it was therefore dubbed a ‘monkfish’ because of the legends that began to spring up due to the early sighting.
There, now you can’t say that I don’t provide interesting stories. Even if most of my posts include rants about Morrisons not having ingredients I need.
Ingredients (serves 3):
- 250g monkfish fillet
- 250g smoked streaky bacon, halved
- 1 aubergine, diced into 3-4cm cubes
- 1 jar pre-prepared Thai Green Curry sauce (they recommend Loyd Grossman but I used Sharwoods)
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Use low-calorie spray oil to coat a baking dish and the add the chopped aubergine. Then wrap the monkfish in the bacon and place on top of the aubergine. Bake this for 20 minutes.
Then take it out of the oven pour over the sauce and bake for a further 10 minutes. When cooked sprinkle the chopped coriander on top and serve. We had it with steamed jasmine rice.
Adapted from here
Verdict: If there was a fictional character that I could use to describe this dish it would be Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s Truly Scrumptuous. Although the aubergine seeds made it a tad bitty the flavours were vibrant and delicious. The smokey flavours of the bacon marinated the fish giving it an even stronger taste whilst the aubergine cubes soaked up a lot of flavour from the sauce and the juices of both the monkfish and the bacon.
It’s a pity monkfish is expensive (thanks for the treat mum) as otherwise I would happily make this again.
Calorie Count: 405 per serving
