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Monkfish Three Ways, Nduja Butter
Monkfish Three Ways with Nduja Butter, Cured Monkfish with Fermented Sloe, and Monkfish Liver Parfait on Alexander Seed Scone
Jeff serves monkfish three ways: a pan-roasted loin with nduja butter sauce, cured monkfish with yogurt, sea herbs and fermented sloe dressing, and a monkfish liver parfait on a warm Alexander seed savoury scone, with braised carrots in pangratata and carrot puree.
Narrator: Jeff's dish is built around monkfish. Jeff: "I'm just going to be serving the whole fish in three different ways."
Jeff: "So this is for a carrot puree. We cook this grated carrot down in its own juice, blend it later."
Jeff: "There's like, you know, all the sloes and Alexander seeds. I've got the Alexanders going into a savoury scone, and I'm going to use the liver to make basically, like a flavoured kind of butter you can spread on the hot scone. Obviously, the tail will be on the side with the fermented sloe, and the centerpiece will be the roasted monkfish. And serve that with an nduja butter sauce. So, yeah, altogether it's, it's a fair bit of work."
Simon Rogan: "Real taste of the coastline on this one. Absolutely blessed with ingredients down there. Should be showcasing as much as possible, and you're certainly doing that."
Jeff: "I'm going to cure it in a mixture of salt and sugar with some lemon zest and some thyme and slice it nice and thin after curing it, freezing it."
Jeff: "So I'm doing basically Vichy carrots, but with Alexanders instead of using pepper, and a little bit of seabuckthorn as well, which would be nice."
Narrator: Next, he fries monkfish livers for his parfait.
Narrator: Chef's monkfish liver parfait is seasoned with a little bit of nitrate salt and a little bit of Cornish sea salt.
Jeff: "So I just need to look after it as it cools down. And I've already tested if it splits, how to rescue it, I thought was a pretty good idea."
Jeff: "When you roast them they smell just like pepper." [on Alexander seeds]
Jeff: "I'm just starting the base to the nduja butter sauce. I'm just going to put a little bit more nduja through it. Obviously, it's not been finished yet. It's only the base."
Simon Rogan: "Jeff's nduja sauce, you know, it's quite fiery at the moment. It's got to reduce, other things added to it. I hope that's the case, or else it's going to completely overpower his fish."
Jeff: "I'm using every minute available."
Jeff: "Terrified to look in the oven to see if my scones were actually rising, I was like, yeah, fine."
Narrator: Cured monkfish and yogurt with sea herbs and fermented sloeberry dressing. Carrot puree, then braised carrots rolled in pangratata, a mix of breadcrumbs, lemon and olive oil. Pan roasted monkfish loin, fish sauce, and nduja butter sauce. Monkfish liver parfait. And finally, Alexander seed scone fresh from the oven.
VETERAN ROUND: Simon Rogan: "Interesting piece of food. You happy with the cooking of the monkfish?"
Jeff: "Yes. It's pan roasted, but I'm still pretty happy with it, to be honest."
Kieran: "The monkfish from the plate was cooked really well. [Scone] was great."
Simon Rogan: "And the scones, the amount of Alexanders in it. Is that strong enough for you?"
Jeff: "It's always scary going with those kind of big flavours. The monkfish liver kind of mouthful, I don't want to overpower that with any more of the seeds." Mark: "For me, my scone was a little bit claggy."
Simon Rogan: "The sauce, is that what you're after?" Jeff: "I think so. I did a bit more nduja, a lot of lemon juice, and thickened it with butter."
Mark: "You probably could have given more, or maybe, like, brushed the fish in it or something like that to really kind of elevate the dish more."
Peer scores: Jeff (self) 8, Martin 7, Kieran 8, Mark 7.
Simon Rogan final feedback: "Jeff, the link to the brief, I think, needed to be a little bit stronger, but the cooking of the monkfish was spot on. The nduja butter sauce was rich and full of flavor. The scone had a strong flavor, Alexander seeds, which I absolutely loved. The cured monkfish, it was an admirable use of the tail pieces, but it felt like an afterthought, and I'm not sure it needed this element. Brilliant use of Southwest products. Just that coastline, you brought it to life on the plate. Well done, wonderful cooking." Simon Rogan score: 8. Jeff progresses to Day 2 of the heat.
JUDGING ROUND: Not applicable. Jeff did not progress to the final judging day [UNCLEAR: dessert-course outcome not in this transcript; inferred from the final judging day transcript, which shows only Mark and Kieran cooking as the two finalists]. His fish course was therefore not re-cooked for the final panel of judges.
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