Serves: 4

Difficulty:

Ingredients

400g potatoes
12-18 bunya nuts
4×250g monkfish fillets
100g rocket
80g macadamia nuts
50g parsley
100ml olive oil
20g butter
30g honey
¼ teaspoon Outback Salt
½ teaspoon Rainforest Rub
Sprig of watercress for garnish

Method

1. First, peel the potatoes and bring them to the boil in small pot; in another pot, boil the bunya nuts and allow to cool in the boiled water
2. for the pesto; finely chop the macadamia nuts, rocket, parsley or blend together in a food processor and then reduce this mixture to a paste in a mortar and pestle adding a little olive oil, honey, Rainforest Rub and salt to taste.
3. remove the shells from the bunya nuts and chop the nut meat finely; drain the potatoes; coarsely mash both of these in a bowl and season with Outback salt and form into hash brown sized patties
4. in a sauce pan, heat a little olive oil and melt in some butter; panfry the bunya nut hash browns until golden; it may require a little more olive oil during the process; make sure to keep the temperature down to low to avoid any smoking of the oil
5. ensure the fish is free of all bones and in another sauce pan heat a little olive oil and butter and pan fry the monkfish until also golden brown on medium heat

Styling

When cooked, place a bunya nut hash brown on the plate, top with the monk fish, then simply garnish with the rocket and macadamia nut pesto and a sprig of watercress.

Dining Downunder Cookbook
This Australian recipe of Panfried monkfish with bunya nut hash, rocket and macadamia nut pesto is included in the Dining Downunder Cookbook which can be purchased online at the Dining Downunder Online Shop. Also available online is a wide range of native Australian herbs and spices, sauces, syrups, infused oils and bush tucker ingredients such as wattleseed and paperbark rolls.

Episode: Redgum Restaurant at Boronia House Mosman

Recipe By: Benjamin Christie

While I was an apprentice chef at the Watermark restaurant in Sydney, the kitchen brigade took turns on who would create the fish of the day offering. You could always tell the best ones as they often sold out by the middle of service and I’m proud of some of the best-selling dishes I concocted during my time there. Since then, in each restaurant I have run I have showcased the fantastic fish available in Australia, including my favorite coral trout. Although this dish is not one of the specials we created, it is rather similar in presentation and style to those we prepared many years ago.

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