Monkfish en Papillote

Guests don’t mind you serving little white paper parcels… in fact they’ll probably like the surprise. And the aroma is heavenly when the paper is opened.

Baking the monkfish in a paper parcel seals in the flavour and moisture from the additional ingredients. You can pour off the liquid and make a quick sauce if you wish simply by adding corn flour and cooking it in a little pan or the microwave. Since my smaller oven has a heating element at the top, I prefer to wrap the parchment in an outer coating of tinfoil.

Ingredients

• 4 x 250g portions of monkfish
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 25g melted butter
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 medium sized onion very finely cut into rings
• 8 baby plum tomatoes quartered.
• Salt
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar or canderel
• Freshly milled black pepper

Preparation

1. Mix melted butter with olive oil and add crushed garlic and sugar sugar.
2. Take 4 pieces of baking parchment about 15cm (8inch) square and lay out the onion rings and tomato on each. Place a portion of Monkfish on top and add the rest of the onion rings and tomato. Drizzle the oil and butter over and season with salt and pepper.
3. Bring the edges of the paper up and twist. Secure with a wooden peg or wrap in tinfoil.
4. Cook at 200C (375F) for 25 minutes. Serve in parcels for a no- fuss quick presentation.
5. Otherwise drain off the juices. Blend 2 teaspoons of corn flour with a little juice at first and then add in the remainder. Heat in a microwave, stopping every 30seconds until the sauce has thickened.
6. Serve with a variety of vegetables or a baby leaf salad.