Roast monkfish with fennel, orange & capers

Despite or maybe because fish is a rare treat in Austria, where I grew up, I am totally addicted to it these days. Back home, fish is very expensive and decent fishmongers scarce to non-existent and it is therefore not surprising that we rarely get fish and seafood other than in the form of fish fingers. Vile, I know. How growing up in this hardship should have converted me to being a fish lover is beyond belief. But whenever we travelled abroad, which meant two to three trips to Italy per year until I reached the age of 16 and after that France, Brittany to be precise, we took advantage of the proximity to the sea and ate as much seafood as our deprived metabolisms could possibly cope with. It was on those vacations that I learnt to eat mussels, had my first oysters and lobster and got my fingers grubby shoving my mouth full of calamari fritti with a drizzle of lemon juice.
Living in London now, I am spoilt with having three of the best fishmongers in town in the vicinity (Sandy's in Twickenham, notable through the Observer's "Best retailer" awards and recently featured in a BBC news broadcast, Jarvis, part of TV Chef Tony Alan's Fish! Group, and FishWorks a chain that only recently opened a branch in Richmond and continues to wow me with their excellent fare) - so we eat fish as often as we possibly can manage to do a proper shopping trip rather than only ordering the essential groceries online. A few weeks back I took advantage of a morning that opened up without notice and I treated myself to a quiet coffee and danish pastries at Paul's, followed by a long chat over their fare at Fishworks. It had been a long time since I had last roasted a whole fish and pondering over what to cook that night decided to pick up a whole monkfish - cleaned, gutted, skinned.
Monkfish is great, I like it because there are no bones which makes it an excellent dinner party fish. As close as I may be to my friends, it's not the nicest thing to have everybody around the table picking bones out of their mouths... which, when you have really bony fish like pike-perch, can become a real conversation killer as well. I faintly remembered seeing a fabulous pairing of flavours in one of my favourite Austrian cookbooks, the Obauer brothers' "Hemmungslos Kochen": monkfish with capers, fennel and orange peel. Not too keen on the latter, I used fresh orange slices, regular and blood orange, instead and it worked a treat. Refreshing, but indulging at the same time, and a doddle to make... perfect for those hot summer days which at the moment seem to be nothing but a distant memory!

Roast monkfish with fennel, orange & capers
(serves 2 generously)

500 g monkfishtail (skinned, trimmed, cleaned)
olive oil
2 twigs rosemary
1 orange (sliced to 1cm horizontally)
1 blood orange (sliced 1cm horizontally)
1 fennel bulbs (cut into 1 cm slices width-wise)
1-2 tbsp capers in brine

Pre-heat oven to 200C.
Salt & pepper the monkfish. Heat some olive oil in a pan large enough to accomodate the whole fish. Add the monkfish tail and fry on all sides until lightly browned. Transfer to an oven-proof dish.
Fry the fennel slices in the same pan, then add to the fish. Arrange the rosemary and orange
slices around the fish, then bake in the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle over the capers and bake for another 5 minutes.

Serve with baked rosemary potatoes or simply some bread on the side.

Comments

[Steamy Kitchen]

How beautiful this dish is! I love the colors of the oranges.

[Maninas: Food Matters]

The monkfish looks and sounds amazing! I love the combination of flavours you've got there!

[Susan from Food Blogga]

Fennel and oranges are one of my favorite flavor pairings. I've made a similar dish with other types of fish, but I'll have to try monkfish, now. It makes a beautiful presentation!

[Iban]

That looks yummy (any prospect of implementing an smelling feature in the blog?).
I envy you (for the choice in fishmongers), being a Spaniard from the Cantabrian coast, I find London terribly disappointing when it comes to fish, hard to believe that this is the capital of an island ;)
I should definitely pay a visit to your side of town

[Kalyn]

It looks very delicious. Monkfish is pretty much non-existent here, so of course I'm longing to try it.

[Wendy]

This sounds and looks amazing. Real summery flavours.

[abby]

this looks fabulous johanna - it's a good motivator to stock up on fish as we've not eaten much recently for some reason.

[The Cooking Ninja]

Your dish looks extremely yummy.

[sandi @ the whistelstop cafe]

I don't know that I have ever had monk fish...the next time I am in London I will give this a try!