Monkfish Medallions with Tomato Lemon Coulis

Monkfish. Poor man's lobster. That's how I see this fish described, over and over and over again. Did you know, way back when this country was colonized by the English, that lobster could be picked up off the beaches and were so plentiful that there was actually a LAW ON THE BOOKS stating that prisoners couldn't be fed lobster more than once a week? That's because it was considered trash food. Yep.

This monkfish actually cost about the same per pound as live lobster so don't go rushing out to the fish store thinking you're gonna get a bargain on this fish. Try skate or mussels if you want cheap seafood.

Another thing about monkfish--they is fugly.



Or maybe terrifying is a better word--I would not want to get my ankle bitten by one of these guys. Can't you just see the oceans of prehistoric earth populated with fish like this? Yipes!

Fortunately, cooking Monkfish Medallions with Tomato Lemon Coulis doesn't involve any contact with live monkfisk. Just a kind of odd looking fillet that had to be de-membraned:



I had never worked with monkfish and found this part to be kind of gyicky, which is a combination of gross and yicky.

But once you get that stuff off you cook it in butter, in a skillet, then set it aside while you make the coulis. Here's my mis en place:



The coulis is pretty simple--it's just sauteed garlic, tomato, lemon juice and thyme--cook it down a little bit in your fish-frying pan, and then spoon it over the monkfish.



Looks good, right?

Well, I'm sorry to say that the coulis was so acidic, what with the tomato and lemon juice, that to me it tasted kind of like...bile. I know, gyicky!

And I am a HUGE fan of citrus, in all its forms, but here it just didn't work.

So if you're going to try this at home, I'd say leave the lemon juice out of the coulis, and just do tomatoes, garlic and herbs. THAT would be some kick-ass dinner.