Monkfish Curry is a wonderfully rich and flavorful dish. Because it’s made from scratch, the seasonings and flavors can be adjusted to your preference. I’ve included mussels and clams in this dish, but shrimp, scallops, and other seafood can be added as well. The ingredient variations are endless!

Serve this delicious Monkfish Curry with simple steamed rice. Or, add my quick and easy Bok Choy and Pea Pod Stir Fry (recipe also included below) to the menu!

Updated January 2022: This post was originally created in April 2019 in collaboration with Almanac Fish in St. Paul, MN (which is now permanently closed) in effort to promote responsibly-sourced sustainable seafood. All opinions, text, and photos herein are my own.

I wanted to come up with a monkfish dish that was completely different from my much-loved Monkfish Mac ‘n Cheese with Peas and Pancetta recipe. After some searching, I found a partial recipe for Cambodian Monkfish Curry online. It only had the title and a few lines of ingredients, but that was enough to pique my interest.

Through some delicious trial and error, we’ve now got a rich, flavorful dish that we really enjoy!

Don’t worry if you’ve never made a curry like this from scratch. I hadn’t either! I’ve enjoyed a lot of other other curry recipes of various origins (because we LOVE curries!), but none quite like this.

I love Asian flavors of all kinds, as well as the wide variety of spices and ingredients it takes to create them. The knowledge and understanding required to properly combine ingredients for balanced dishes is admirable.

That said, I’m simply calling this recipe Monkfish Curry. Although this recipe was inspired by Cambodian curry recipes, I don’t personally know enough about the cuisine to legitimately call this a Cambodian curry.

I’ll add that, in researching this recipe, I learned many Cambodian curries are actually prepared and served wrapped in banana leaves. That information alone inspires me to keep experimenting with dishes like this.

If you’d like to learn a little more about monkfish, here is some additional information to check out:

how to purchase and prepare monkfish .

And, if you like Lobster Mac ‘n Cheese, I challenge you to try my amazingly delicious recipe for:

Monkfish Mac ‘n Cheese with Peas and Pancetta!

As for this Monkfish Curry recipe, please don’t run away because it appears to have a lot of steps. The recipe components are broken down to make the steps easier to follow. There’s even a Shopping List included at the end.

I promise this recipe is really not that difficult, and it’s definitely worth a little extra time!

Enjoy!

Monkfish Curry with Bok Choy and Pea Pod Stir Fry

Monkfish Curry is a wonderfully rich and flavorful dish. The heat, salt, and citrus levels can be adjusted to any preference, and the ingredient variations are endless. Serve with simple steamed rice, or add my quick and easy Bok Choy and Pea Pod Stir Fry (recipe included). Enjoy!

Servings 4

Author Michele Phillips, BaconFatte.com

Ingredients

For the Curry Paste (makes about ¾ cup)

2 whole fresh red chili peppers, seeded & chopped
3 - 5 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
2 stalks lemongrass, outer leaves removed & trimmed
2 - 3 shallots, peeled & chopped (about ½ cup)
2 small fresh bay leaves, finely chopped
1" piece fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
zest of 1 lime
2 - 3 tablespoons water, as needed

For the Seafood Broth/Sauce

1 - 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
curry paste (recipe above)
1 - 2 shallots, peeled & sliced (about ¼ cup)
1 - 14 oz. can unsweetened coconut milk
2 tablespoons coconut palm sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 teaspoons fish sauce, plus more to taste
1 pound fresh monkfish, cut into evenly-sized pieces
1/2 pound fresh clams, cleaned
1/2 pound fresh mussels

To Serve

1 - 2 fresh red chili peppers, seeded & thinly sliced for garnish
1 lime, sliced for garnish
2 - 4 cups cooked jasmine rice, to serve

For the Bok Choy & Pea Pod Stir Fry

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup fresh pea pods (5 - 6 ounces)
4 - 5 large bok choy stalks, trimmed and sliced - greens reserved separately
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice + more to taste

Instructions

Cook or warm rice.
For the curry paste: Place ingredients in a food processor and pulse several times. Add water as needed - a tablespoon at a time. Continue processing and scrape down the sides of the processor bowl often. Process until curry paste comes together. This will take several minutes as the lemon grass and bay leaves break down. The paste will be “rustic” versus completely smooth, and very aromatic.
Prepare monkfish by removing any membrane and cutting into bite-sized pieces. Refrigerate until ready to cook.
Clean and de-beard clams and mussels. Refrigerate until ready to cook.
Wash and trim pea pods and trim bok choy. Slice whole bok choy stalks at an angle, slicing and reserving tender greens to add last. Add 1 – 2 tablespoons of oil to a large covered skillet, and warm over medium heat. Add pea pods, sliced bok choy stalks, and lime juice, and stir fry just until pea pods brighten in color and bok choy stems soften slightly. Add bok choy greens and cook for just a minute more. Remove vegetables from heat, place in a heat safe container, cover lightly to keep warm, and set aside.
Add 2 tablespoons of oil to warm skillet. Add prepared curry paste and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Add sliced shallots, coconut milk, palm sugar, lime juice, and fish sauce, and stir to combine. Allow sauce to cook 5 minutes or until it begins to bubble. Add cubed monkfish and mussels, stir and cover for 3 minutes. Stir again and cover for another 2 - 3 minutes until fish is cooked (to 145 degrees), and clams and mussels are open. Discard any clams or mussels that do not open.
To serve, spoon monkfish, clams and mussels over rice with plenty of sauce. Garnish with thinly sliced red chilies and fresh lime slices. Enjoy immediately with the warm Bok Choy and Pea Pod Stir Fry.
SHOPPING LIST
1 pound fresh monkfish
½ pound fresh clams
½ pound fresh mussels
3 - 4 fresh red chili peppers
3 - 5 garlic cloves
2 stalks lemongrass
4 - 5 shallots
fresh bay leaves (found with fresh herbs in grocery stores)
fresh ginger (1” knob)
fresh pea pods (5 - 6 ounces)
1 large bok choy
2 – 3 fresh limes
vegetable oil (3 - 4 tablespoons)
1, 14 oz. can coconut milk
coconut palm sugar (2 tablespoons)
fish sauce (3 teaspoons)
turmeric, ground (1 teaspoon)
jasmine rice (about 2 cups dry)

I’d love to know if you try this recipe!

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Sustainable Seafood

It’s important to focus on responsibly-sourced sustainable seafood. Thankfully, we can learn more about it through programs like Smart Catch which is:

“…an educational sustainable seafood program created by chefs for chefs with the purpose of increasing the sustainability of the seafood supply chain… the program provides training and support to chefs so they can serve seafood fished or farmed in environmentally-responsible ways. By becoming a Smart Catch Leader and earning the Smart Catch seal, chefs give consumers a simple way to identify and support their restaurants.” -jamesbeard.org

Check out the admirable list of amazing Minnesota Restaurants that are participating in the Smart Catch program! We’re so fortunate to have an amazing resource driving and supplying the best seafood available right in out own back yard.