While the weather in Cape Town might suggest otherwise, I’m craving bright summery seafood dishes.
Enter my grilled Monkfish with chorizo, clams and ClemenGold®. Often an overlooked option, monkfish makes a deliciously sustainable alternative to lobster – especially when topped with a rich sauce of tiny briny clams and smoky chorizo.
Full of bold flavour, the combination of zingy ClemenGold® citrus, dry white wine and fiery Spanish paprika in the sauce give this recipe attitude – making it just as inviting a choice when temperatures plummet. Often maligned as “poor man’s crayfish”, monkfish is an affordable and delicious fish that holds up well to strong flavours.
Monkfish with ClemenGold, Chorizo and Clams
Prep time: 15 mins / Cook time: 20 mins / Serves: 4
You will need:
- 2 monkfish tails (about 600-800g in total)
- Olive oil
- 500g small clams or mussels
- 100g chorizo sausage, roughly diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 small onion or 2 shallots, finely chopped
- 150ml dry white wine
- 60ml ClemenGold® juice
- 250ml cream
- A handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
- 5ml Spanish smoked paprika
- Coarse ground sea salt and pepper
Add a glug of olive oil to a heavy-bottomed frying pan with a lid. Over low to medium heat, sauté the onion until translucent then add the chorizo. Render the chorizo until crispy and add in the garlic. Increase the heat and deglaze the pan with the wine and ClemenGold® juice. Pour in the cream and season with salt and pepper. Add the clams and cover with the lid. Steam the clams until open and stir half of the chopped parsley through the sauce. Set aside, keeping the sauce warm but not hot.
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place a large frying pan over high heat. Rub the monkfish tails with olive oil and season with salt, pepper and paprika. Brown the tails on each side for 5 minutes. Transfer the monkfish to an ovenproof serving dish and roast in the oven for a further 8 minutes or until the flesh is no longer translucent. Spoon the clam sauce over the monkfish and scatter over the remaining parsley. Serve immediately.
