Pistachio encrusted monkfish, grilled fennel salad and peach tarte tatin

Today we’ll be making a perfectly seasonal Sunday dinner:  pistachio encrusted monkfish, grilled fennel and onion salad and peach tarte tatin.

Monkfish

• 2 monkfish fillets
• 1/3 cup pistachios + 1 tablespoon bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• fresh-squeeze juice of 2 mandarin oranges/clementines
• salt & pepper

Prepare the pistachios – with a mortar and pestle, grind pistachio nuts finely. Mix in a small handful of plain breadcrumbs.

Wash and dry fillets and season. Dip first in egg then into the nut&crumb mixture and coat thoroughly.

Cook on a medium-heat skillet until tender and flaky (watch the crust, it will burn easily!). Throughout cooking and before serving, pour fresh-squeezed mandarin juice over fish. Serve with mandarin slices as garnish.

Salad

• 1 head fennel
• 1/2 large onion
• soy sauce
• red wine or sherry vinegar

Cut fennel and onion into rings, season as preferred. Cook with a small amount of oil and vinegar in a deep pan or wok until lightly browned. Add a bit of soy sauce for color and tang.

Bon appetit!

Tarte tatin (from The Craft of Baking)

(you will need a cast iron skillet, preferably! I really should have bought that tarte tatin pan, I kept thinking ‘it looks just like a regular pan’…)

Recipe applicable for all tarts, in this case we used:

• 2 peaches (one flat, one regular)
• 1 sheet of puff pastry, rolled  out, cut to shape and refrigerated until firm (you should have enough to cover and tuck under skillet, depending on size – remember to prick with a fork before baking)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 big dollops of butter

1. Prepare and cut fruit into thin (about 1/4 inch) pieces. Preheat oven to 175 C.

2. In your cast iron skillet or pan, dissolve sugar in water on high heat. Do not mix, watch very, very carefully until it reaches a light golden color. Remove from heat immediately as syrup will keep cooking. Whisk in butter.

3. Layer fruit over the caramel (as Karen DeMasco puts it, do it so they fit ‘snugly’)

4. Cover with pastry, making sure to tuck under securely so that no caramel syrup seeps out unnecessarily.

5. Depending on size, this will bake for 40-50 mins.

6. When bubbly and golden, remove from oven and let cool for about 15 minutes (at least) to get the pastry and fruit to absorb all the flavors. It’s better to reheat this than to not let it get properly ready.

7. When you’re ready, carefully flip tart ‘upside down’ onto a cake platter.

Enjoy on its own or with some ice cream or yogurt.