Monkfish is not the best looking fish amongst all fishes you could get. But, it is probably the fish that I love most! Monkfish is a whitefish. It has got firm and meaty flesh that is very suitable for stir-frying. The secret to make good stir-fry fish dishes is to make sure the flesh doesn’t break into small pieces. Back home in Malaysia, my mom likes to use red/grey snappers or grouper. In London, the size of the red or grey snapper is somewhat like sea bream, which doesn’t give as chunky flesh as those big red or grey snapper. 

I made Seabass in Salted Soya Bean Sauce a while ago. Like last time time, I used salted soya bean but I added some fermented black bean. I mashed both to form a paste. Besides, I grounded some fresh chilies and mixed it into salted soya bean and black bean paste. For some reasons, I have been craving for a spicy and pungent dish. That’s why I added some chilies and used quite a bit of garlic!!

To be honest, I like to eat fish with skin on. Of course, the scales are off!  The reason being, if the skin is left on, I would deep-fry the fish to have the crispy top layer. Crispy fish skin, yum! This also avoids the fillet to break into small pieces. Over here, fish bought from the supermarkets is always filleted and without skin. Unless, I buy whole fish! Even so, I shallow fried the fillets to achieve slightly brownish and crispy top layer.

This time, I have adjusted the recipe slightly and add tomato. Hope you will like it!

Recipe: Monkfish in Salted Soya Bean & Black Bean Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Monkfish or any other firm meaty white fish, 250g

Cornflour (for dusting), 1 – 2 tbsp

Sunflower oil (for shallow frying), some

Garlic (finely chopped), 2 or 3

Spring onions (all cut into about 4cm length), 1 sprig

Red chilies (grounded), 1 or 2

Ginger (chopped finely), 1cm

Salted soya bean, 2 tsp

Fermented black bean, 1 tsp

Tomato (cut into wedges), 1

Corn flour, 1 tsp (mix with about 2tbsp of water) **this is use to thicken the sauce

Water, 50ml

Method:

1. Fill your pan or wok with sunflower oil for shallow-frying.

2. Dust both sides of the fish fillets with some corn flour and shallow fry them until slightly brown.

3. Meanwhile, put in fermented black bean and salted soya bean in a bowl and give them a good mash. Once they form a paste, add in grounded chili paste and mix. Set aside.

4. Once both sides of the fillets are near to golden brown, take them out and place them on a plate with kitchen towel and set aside.

5 . In a new pan, heat it up with some oil.

6. Put in the chopped garlic and ginger. Cook them until fragant.

7. Add in paste (black bean, salted soya bean and chili) that you made just now. Mix well. Then, add in tomato wedges. Stir for 2 minutes or so. After that, pour in water.

8. Add in the spring onions. Stir well. Bring the sauce to boil and thicken the sauce with the corn flour mixture.

9.  Put in the fish fillets that you have fried and coat it with the sauce. Stir for about 5 minutes to warm the fish.

10. Finally, it’s ready to be served.