Monkfish Medallions with New Season Potatoes and Asparagus

I was walking by my favourite fishmongers the other day and as I always do, stopped by to browse in their shop window. Sometimes they have pretty interesting stuff. I love to buy, prepare and eat freshly caught fish, and their fish is really fresh.

Being a Kiwi fish shop, they have items which might be considered unusual elsewhere - seasonal sea urchin roe - called kina by the Maori - and uni by the Japanese who make it into delicious sashimi and sushi. Occasionally they even have mutton birds - a curious sea bird which comes from the South Island which has been preserved in brine. They belong to a order of sea birds called petrels and perhaps the "mutton" part of their local name comes from early settlers who thought the meat reminded them of mutton. More information on this when I have actually cooked one.

This time, what caught my eye was a particularly ugly fish. It couldn't be, I thought, a whole monkfish? Sure looked like one. The guy in the shop said, it's a Stargazer - local name for Monkfish and happily filleted it for me. This whole fish about 40cm long cost the equivalent of 2 Big Mac meals and yielded 2 large fillets of firm white flesh and a frame to make super duper fish stock.

Thought I'd make a variation of a Rick Stein recipe.

Ingredients:

• Monkfish fillets, cut into 1 inch thick medallions
• 1/2 cup Roasted buckwheat
• 1 clove fresh garlic
• 1 bunch Fennel fronds
• sea salt
• white pepper
• new season potatoes
• asparagus

Method for the fish:
1. in food processor or mortar, crush up buckwheat with garlic, fennel and sea salt.
2. coat one side of the fish with this mixture
3. fry in olive oil, crumbed side down first, for about 2 min, then turn over and fry till just cooked and brown on the other.

For the veges:
Peel and cook the potatoes in a pot of well salted water, drain and keep warm
prepare and steam the asparagus (or blanch them in the same salted water for about 2 min)

To serve:
Plate the potatoes and asparagus with generous amount of butter or saffron mayonnaise
Place fish alongside..

Eat and enjoy!

Corn & Zucchini Fritters

Spring is here - or trying to establish a foothold in any case. We've had some really lovely warm days followed by a couple of blustery days with wind blowing right up from the Antarctic.

However, today is a beautiful day, the wind has died down, the sun is out and the birds are singing. And the grass needs mowing. Before getting onto that task, I thought I'd make myself a nice light, healthy lunch of corn & zucchini fritters. How can fritters be healthy, you may ask. Aren't they deep fried? Well, these are full of fiber and practically fat free too!

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh corn kernels
2 cups finely julienned zucchini (grated is OK)
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
2 eggs
1 cup water
1 finely chopped red chilli
1/2 cup finely sliced spring onions
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cumin and freshly ground black pepper. Add a bit of salt (depends on how salty your feta cheese is). Mix well.
2. Add the vegetables and cheese to the flour
3. Beat the eggs well
4. Add the eggs and water to flour and veg mixture and mix well. It will be a stiff batter.
5. Heat a non stick skillet (you can add some olive oil for frying but it is not necessary). Drop 1 large tablespoon of the fritter mixture on the the skillet and fry over medium-low heat for about 3min on each side, till well browned. You'll know when it is time to turn over when small bubbles appear on the surface.
6. Serve with sweet chilli sauce / chilli mayo / alioli

Makes 12 fritters.