For this dish you need small monkfish tails which have a sweet and delightful flavour and are ideally suited to cooking in a tandoori style.
We can never quite capture the taste of tandooried food because we don’t possess, most of us anyway, such a spectacular piece of equipment as a tandoor. But fairly convincing results can be achieved using a barbecue grill. Alternatively use your overhead grill or oven.
You need to be a bit careful when chargrilling fish or meat marinated in tandoori spices. While you do need the barbecued flavour, you don’t want to burn the marinade too much otherwise it tastes bitter. This is an occasion to use one of those hinged grill wires.
Cooking in tandoori ovens is done using long spears on which the food is impaled so that it doesn’t touch anything in the oven.
I’m afraid this is one of those rare occasions when food colour has to be used. You can make tandoori without, but it just doesn’t look right.
Serves 4
4 small monkfish tails, each weighing about 275 - 350 g
Kachumber salad
Lemon wedges to serve
For the Kachumber salad (serves 8 to 10)
300g vine-ripened tomatoes, thinly sliced
100g red onions
1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped
1/2 tsp toasted ground cumin seeds
1/4 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
Large handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice or white wine vinegar
Lime wedges (optional), to finish
For the lemon chilli marinade:
1 teaspoon chilli powder or cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1 large lemon
For the tandoori marinade:
50 g natural yoghurt
50ml double cream
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
1 teaspoon garam masala
3/4 tablespoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon red food colour
For the raita salad:
85ml natural yoghurt
1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon, chopped fresh mint
A pinch of salt
1) Slash the monkfish tails 3 – 4 times right down to the central bone on either side to allow the marinade to permeate right into the fish. Place in a small dish with the lemon chilli marinade ingredients and leave to marinate for 1 hour, turning occasionally and rubbing more marinade into the cuts. Make the tandoori marinade, add to the dish, and leave for a further hour.
2) Light the barbecue 30 – 40 minutes before you start cooking. Cook the monkfish over the coals, turning frequently to prevent burning. They will take about 10 – 12 minutes too cook.
3) While the fish is cooking, prepare the two salads. For the raita simply mix all the ingredients together. Serve the tandooried monkfish with two salads, some wedges of lemon and some fresh naan bread.
Happy cooking.
