Monkfish Curry with Wild Cabbage and Worcester Apples

Photo courtesy of Photography by Sadiq

This dish is based on my favorite fish curry recipes, I discovered a lovely recipe for monkfish curry in one of Skye Gyngell's cookbooks. It's not often I follow someone else's recipe, however I do love the way Skye cooks and her books are wonderful. Until she left Petersham Nurseries, it was my favorite restaurant in London and to overcome my withdrawals since she's left, I've been delving into her books.

This version of Skye's monkfish curry is served with peppery foraged wild cabbage. I've also added worcester apples which are currently in season and brown shrimp to balance out the sweet and tart of the apples—a lovely alternative to rice and bread.

800g monkfish sliced into 2cm chunks
400ml coconut milk
400g canned plum tomatoes
1 red onion
25g butter
1 small bunch coriander with roots
3 cloves garlic
2 red chillies
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 lime

1 wild cabbage
8 worcester apples
60g brown shrimp
Sea salt
Extra virgin olive oil

METHOD:
Peel and thinly slice the onion, put butter in a large heavy-based pot and place over a low-medium heat to melt. Add the onion and cook gently until onion softens and turns translucent. Place a small fry pan over a medium heat and add the fennel seeds, coriander seeds and mustard. Lightly toast the seeds until fragrant, remove from heat and ground into a rough powder using mortar and pestle then add to onions. Peel and crush the garlic, dice the chillies, finely slice the roots of the coriander and add all three ingredients to the onion along with fish sauce, palm sugar, torn kaffir leaves and juice of the lime. Turn heat up to medium and cook for 5 minutes, add the plum tomatoes and turn heat up until sauce is just bubbling. Cover pot with lid and turn heat down slightly, cook for 20 minutes, stirring periodically.

Cut the apples into quarters and lay over baking tray then drizzle with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Place apples in oven set at 180ºC for 15 minutes. Remove the large stalk base of the wild cabbage, wash the leaves and slice into 2cm width strips. Place a large pot with lid over a high heat and add a good dash of olive oil, once hot cook the wild cabbage with a good pinch of salt (you may need to do this in 2 batches). When the cabbage is cooked it should have wilted and be a vibrant green colour and still slightly crisp along the center stalky center, not black.

Once the sauce has cooked, add coconut milk and turn up the heat slightly, when the sauce is just simmering stir in the monkfish and remove from heat. Leave to stand for about 4-5 minutes, the heat of the sauce should be enough to cook the fish, making it tender and soft.
Serve the fish curry over a bed of wild cabbage and cooked apples, garnish with brown shrimps and torn coriander leaves.