Rape me! Monkfish with safron and thyme

One of the less charming fish swimming around the oceans is probably the monksfish. But as ugly as it might be, it's a real delicacy on when it's served up on a the plate. It's meat is very soft and tasty. If you haven't tried it, I recommend keeping an eye out for it next time you're at the fishmonger. As to get the head as well as it makes a splendid soup. In Spanish the fish is knownas "rape" (ra-pai), hence the cryptic title of this post. I cooked a nive safran and thyme sauce in which I then poached the fish.

Ingredients:
1 tail of a large monkfish
2 carrots
1 stalk of celery
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
Pinch of safran
Pinch of curry powder
1/2 l. quality fish stock (click here to se how to make your own)
Salt and white pepper
1 portion of mashed potatoes

Here's the cute, little fish smiling at you.


Clean and chop the vegetables finely.

Fry them in some olive oil until they are soft. Add the dried thyme.

Add salt and some more dried thyme to the monkfish. Mine was cut in chunks, but you can also fry the tail whole and cut it out later.

Fry it lightly for about a minute on each side in a bit o olive oil. Let it rest on the warm pan.

When the veggis and thyme has fried for a couple of minutes, add the curry powder and safran.

Add the fish stock (or fumet as it's also know as).

Pour in the juices accumulated from frying the fish.

Let it reduce to about half, then blend it slightly with a stick blender. You just want to thicken the sauce, so it's not necessary to blend it finely. In fact, you want it a bit chunky.

Place the fish into the sauce, turn off the heat and let it rest in the sauce for about 5 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes and sprinkle some parsley on top.