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!

Evechinus Chloroticus

What in the name is that? New Zealand sea urchin roe! It is also known as kina in the Maori language.

Kina a.k.a sea urchin roe in a tub

Walked into Georges Fisheries located on Victoria Avenue to buy some fish and noticed this tub with the words 'Kina Roe' written on it. Wondered what it was, read it carefully and realized it was sea urchin roe. Bought a 200gm tub the week after for NZD15.50 and made pasta aglio olio with sea urchin roe.

Sea urchin

The sea urchin in the tub were harvested from the Coromandel Peninsula. It was kept in clear Pacific waters. From observation, the color of New Zealand sea urchin is not as bright nor yellow as sea urchin or uni we get in Singapore. On the nose, I could only smell the sea water. On the tongue, it had a mild "seaweed" taste with a sweet aftertaste. It has a soft and creamy texture.

Sea urchin on a plate

Decided to make pasta aglio olio with kina for two. While the pasta was cooking in a pot of hot boiling salted water, sliced garlic was fried in a pan with hot olive oil. Once the pasta was al dente, transferred it into the pan & tossed it. Before serving, threw in all the kina into the pan & tossed the pasta again.

Pasta aglio olio with creamy kina

The kina melted with the heat & became like a creamy sauce. I could still taste the taste of the sea. The pasta went well with a New Zealand white wine.