Sous Vide Monkfish | Recipe by sousvidetools.com

Sous Vide monkfish wrapped in Parma ham, with red wine jus, lemon sabayon and cockles

COOK TIME: 2 hours
PREP TIME: 1 hour
DIFFICULTY: Easy
SERVES: 4

Ingredients

Monkfish wrapped in Parma ham

1 monkfish tail, skinned and filleted
200g of Parma ham
10g of butter

Red wine jus

10ml of red wine essence
1 pinch of sugar
1.5g of tarragon
1 pinch of black pepper
20ml of whipping cream
40ml of Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar
250ml of white Chicken stock, boiled
250ml of brown Chicken stock, boiled
325g of button mushrooms, finely sliced
50g of butter
125g of shallots, finely sliced
750ml of Cabernet Sauvignon red wine

Lemon Sabayon

3 egg yolks
50ml of water
70g of butter, melted
1 pinch of salt
1 lemon, juiced

Cockles

80g of cockles, cleaned
1 garlic clove, finely sliced
20ml of white wine
5g of shallots, finely sliced
5ml of oil
1 pinch of salt
10g of crème fraîche

Equipment

Method

For this recipe it is best to start by preparing the red wine jus. To do this you will need to boil the red wine until it has reduced to 200ml. Next, heat 25g of the butter in a pan before adding the shallots. Cook until lightly coloured and then add 175g of the sliced mushrooms. Try not to over caramelise the shallots
In a separate pan, heat both the white and brown chicken stock until boiling. In a third pan, boil the vinegar for 5 minutes. Take the cooked shallots and mushrooms and add the boiled vinegar and a further 75g of sliced mushrooms. Take the reduced red wine and add this along with both the stocks
Bring the mixture to a boil, ensuring any scum is skimmed off the top then allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Take another pan and pass the mixture through a chinois into it
Heat the jus until boiling then allow to reduce until the mixture reaches a consistency of a thin sauce. Add the cream and the remainder of the mushrooms
To finish, add the red wine essence, sugar, tarragon and seasoning. Pass through a fine chinois and set aside until ready to serve
For the sous vide monkfish, fill and preheat your water oven to 45°C
Prepare the fish for cooking by slicing off the discoloured outer section of the tail. Ideally you should use a very sharp filleting knife to do this. Use kitchen towel to pat dry the fillet
Take the Parma ham and lay it out so that the pieces overlap. Place the monkfish in the centre and carefully roll the Parma ham around it. Use cling film to securely wrap the fish into a cylindrical shape
Place the wrapped fish into a vacuum pack pouch then seal with a vacuum sealer machine. Submerge the pouch into the water oven and cook sous vide for 15 minutes. Once cooked, take the fish out of the bath and remove from the pouch. Use kitchen towel to pat dry
Now move on to preparing the Lemon Sabayon. Whisk the egg yolks together in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Whisk until the temperature reaches 90°C. Remove from the heat and continue to whisk until the temperature drops to 70°C. The eggs should be light and fluffy at this stage. Add the butter gradually (this will prevent it from splitting) whilst continuing to whisk. Finally, season with salt before adding the lemon juice
For the cockles, heat the oil in a pan and sweat the shallots, garlic and salt until softened. Now add the cockles, wine and crème fraiche and continue to cook over a high heat with the lid on for 1 minute exactly
To arrange the dish, slice the monkfish wrapped in Parma ham into portions and arrange in the centre of each plate. Spoon or dot the red wine jus around the fish before placing cockles around the outside and finally spooning over the lemon sabayon. Serve and enjoy

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Post by Chris Holland

Our Chef Director Chris Holland worked as Head Chef at the prestigious Alderley Edge hotel before joining us. He has a passion for using the best produce and never compromises on quality. Author of our best selling book Sous Vide The Art of Precision Cooking, Chris is a expert on the sous vide technique.During the later part of my school days at Wardle High School Rochdale I always wanted to be a chef . I knew from the very start that my path to work was never going to be academic it was always going to be something practical and hands on.

As a young boy growing up I was inspired to cook with my Grandma who was and still is an inspiration to me . I have memories of helping make the cakes that she always had made for visitors and family alike . She made the most amazing cakes and I loved nothing more than eating the sweet raw cake batter straight from the bowl . We used to fight over who got to lick the bowl/spoon after the cakes were made. My grandma’s philosophy for cooking even on a shoe string budget was always to use fresh and seasonal ingredients either home grown or bought from the market.

School was somewhat of a drag for me as I was itching to learn to become a chef.

I started at Hopwood Hall college as a chef and instantly fell in love with it .To me it was the only real time I excelled in something and this inspired me to really get my head down and put in the hard work. College was the first time I really excelled in something and gave me the opportunity to laugh at the teachers who said I would never make something of my life!!!!

During the three years at college I also took on a part time position in a local hotel working the bar and restaurant first and then the kitchen. These were great days and gave me the opportunity to see how the industry ticks. I learnt a lot from those days both good and bad !! But I have to say I was itching to work only in the kitchen but it was a good insight into the catering world .

After completing college I moved away from Rochdale for a full time roll at one of Cheshire’s most talked about Hotel restaurants The Stanneylands Hotel. This was the school of hard knocks for me as I quickly realised that although excelling at college meant nothing in “The Real World”.

I loved every minute of the 18 hour days 6 days a week on minimum wage . Although difficult I feel that without this grounding I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. After 18 months of hard graft I left Stanneylands and went with the Head chef to open a fine dining restaurant at Mere Golf and Country Club. The opportunity to work alongside Matthew Barrett was too good to turn down. I learnt so much from the ex-Ritz chef and working in a much slower paced role helped me develop a much better understanding of how to organise and run a kitchen. We were a very small team and teamwork was and still is the only way to go for me.

After 2 years at Mere I got the opportunity to go into The Alderley Edge Hotel as Junior Souschef. The Early days at the Edge were all about learning new styles of cuising which is invaluable in any role as a chef. I got the opportunity to grow and learn all aspects of every section which was inspiring . I was offered the opportunity at the age of 29 (2004) to take the role of head chef. For me this was when I really started to develop my own style of food.

After 9 years at the top winning Cheshire restaurant of the year , Chef of the Year and appearing on GBM amongst many highlights including cooking for many celebrities and famous people I decided to move on into development with Sousvidetools.

The main inspiration for this was to train and educate people . I always had a great passion for education but could never really see myself at a college . The job is super rewarding and I am proud to say we have become the leading light in sous-vide education in the UK . This is something I am very proud of . Food is my biggest passion and this is what keeps me interested the most . I love to travel and try out other countries cuisines. I am constantly inspired by ingredients and the pursuit of getting the best out of them without destroying their natural flavour .It is super important to me to continue to try and be at the forefront of the food scene this is what inspire me and the team to keep driving forward .

Technology is now widely used in the industry and I am super proud to say we have been a big part of spreading that message.

I am very lucky to be in the position I am and the drive to constantly improve our training and links to the next generation of young budding hospitality chefs.

TI feel that my experience over the last 25 years really enables me to get close and educate the “next generation” of chefs .

The industry which I love is really struggling to bring through new recruits and if I can help that process I will be immensely proud.

The food seen in the Uk has improved dramatically over the last ten years and I feel this will continue with the correct education. What happens next only fate will tell us...

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