Roast Monkfish with Petits Pois

This is very quick and simple to prepare, so simple it hardly needs a recipe. It’s the presentation that makes the dish so stunning, the plump roast fillets of fish thickly sliced on the slant and piled over peas, the whole thing given a splash of your best olive oil and some finely chopped flat leaf parsley. Salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon is all it needs although oven chips tossed with salt and finely snipped chives are a very good addition.

Serves 2

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 15 min

2 monkfish fillets

1 tbsp olive oil

1 lemon

300g frozen petits pois

few sprigs flat leaf parsley

2 tbsp best olive oil

Boil the kettle. Heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Smear the fillets with the 1 tbsp olive oil and place on a small, shallow roasting tin. Season with salt and pepper and a generous squeeze from half the lemon. Roast for 15-20 minutes until the fillets feel cooked through when pierced with the point of a sharp knife. Meanwhile cook the peas in boiling salted water from the kettle. Drain and return to the pan until ready to serve. When the fish is done, leave to rest for a couple of minutes then lift onto a chopping board. Warm a couple of plates in the fading oven. Using a sharp knife, slice across the thickness of the fillets on the diagonal in approx 5cm slices. Spoon the peas into the middle of the warmed plates and use a fish slice to lift the sliced fish down the middle of the peas. Spoon over some fish juices, add a generous swirl of best olive oil, finely chopped parsley and add a lemon wedge. That’s it folks.