Monkfish For Dinner.

Mr. Hawthorne and I went to Harris Teeter Thursday afternoon, since we hadn't been there in ... oh ... 2 days. They had a lovely monkfish there, also known as "poor man's lobster." The only edible parts of the monkfish are its tail and its liver. The tail meat is delicious - very dense, sweet, and similar to lobster tail in both flavor and texture. I guess monkfish used to be cheap, since it's called "poor man's lobster." But this monkfish was $10.99/pound and I used to pay $8.99/pound for whole lobsters at our beloved SeaMark grocery store, a locally owned wonderful store which Harris Teeter bought out. I miss my SeaMark. Anyways, we went ahead and bought a small fillet of monkfish for supper. Mr. Hawthorne is all up my grill about how I'm going to prepare this seafood. "Well," he says, "You know how I would do it ..." "No," I says, "I don't. Since you ain't gonna be doin' it." So then he just shut up for a while. You know, if you're going to be telling me how to do something that I'm OK about doing, then JUST DO IT YOURSELF. Then, he starts up again: "Well, are you going to bake it?" "NO. I'm poaching it." "Hmmm... that just might work." "So glad I have your approval."

Before starting on the monkfish, I prepared a topping for it. My ingredients: olive oil red and orange sweet peppers onion garlic

my homemade shrimp stock whole almonds salt and pepper

I chopped my garlic, onion, and peppers.

Sauteed in oil, then added some salt and pepper.

I added about 1/4 cup of my shrimp stock.

Then the almonds went in to cook for a few minutes.

Taste and see if you require more seasonings.

Next, I poured it all into my mini-processor. Processed away. And if you need a bit more olive oil to get it nice and smooth, go ahead.

And here's my pepper/onion/almond puree topping for my seafood.

Now, that little hamster on the wheel in my brain is getting quite a work out tonight. I'm thinking tastes, flavors, textures, and appearance for toppings on the fish, so I came up with this. From top left: sliced green onions almond puree topping sliced black olives chopped tomatoes chopped parsley

Here's my salted and peppered monkfish. With slices of lemon and lime, bay leaves, and sitting in the juice of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 lime.

And for my poaching liquid, I'm going with Sherry, more shrimp stock, and water.

I sauteed the fish in a little bit of butter first, just because I like butter. Then I added the shrimp stock.

The sherry went in.

And water to cover.

The lime and lemon juices went in.

And the lime and lemon slices and the bay leaves.

Do not boil. Cover and just barely simmer until the meat is opaque. Can't give you times on this. It depends on the thickness of the meat. Meanwhile ...

I'm preparing the veggies. Just onion, broccoli, and carrot.

I added a little bit of extra light olive oil and a tad of sesame oil to the pan, heated it up, then added the veggies. Just toss and turn for a minute . Then add in some sesame seeds.

While the pan is nice and hot, I added a little water to steam the veggies.

Remove from heat, cover, and set aside.

Here's my plated monkfish. I had made a few slices in the meat during the cooking to see if it was ready. I put pats of butter in those cuts along with the slices of limes and lemons. Then I topped with the almond puree, the sliced black olives, the sliced green onions, and the chopped tomatoes. I think this dish is extremely visually appealing.

Here's my plate with the veggies. I loved it. I loved the toppings. I loved the fish. I loved the sesame-flavored veggies.

Mr. Hawthorne: "This doesn't taste like lobster." <WHINE> Rosie: "That's because it's NOT lobster." Mr. H.: "But it's supposed to taste like lobster." Rosie: "Suck it up and eat it. It's damn good." Mr. H: WHINE