Monkfish with Avocado Sauce

My friend Susan was in California a couple weeks ago and visited an organic farm that grows avocados. As a result she came back to New York with a huge bag filled with this fabulous fruit. Seeing that I love, love, love avocados, when she offered for me to snag one from her bag I gladly accepted!

Now I obviously love guacamole, but I was interested in trying something different with my avocado. Since I am a big sauce girl (some say saucy, too), I decided to make an avocado sauce. I figured it would go really well with either chicken or seafood. Seeing that I haven’t cooked seafood in a while, I opted for this choice.

When choosing a fish to accompany the avocado sauce, I wanted a white fish that would let the sauce shine. After perusing the fish counter at my market, I decided on the monkfish. If you are not familiar with monkfish, it is very similar in texture to lobster. In fact it is often referred to as “poor man’s lobster”. Seeing that I love lobster but my budget doesn’t let me dine on it nightly, this fish was the perfect fit. I think tilapia and cod would also work well for this recipe (though note that the method of cooking these other fish would differ).

One last thing, this is a super easy recipe that is difficult to mess-up. So if you are looking for a fool proof yet gourmet-like dish to make, this is a perfect choice.

So here you go (per serving):

Fish

• 1 Monkfish filet
• 1 tsp Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Rub olive oil onto monkfish filet. Top off with salt and pepper.
3. Place the filet onto a sheet of tin foil and loosely wrap (like a package). Then move wrapped fish onto a baking sheet.
4. Bake in oven 10 minutes per inch of thickness.

Sauce

• ½ cup Haas avocado
• Juice from ½ lemon
• 2 tbsp Sour cream
• 2 tbsp Milk
• Salt, to taste
• 2 tbsp Chopped red onion
• 1 tbsp Chopped parsley (optional)

1. In a large bowl mix the avocado, lemon juice, sour cream, and milk until fully pureed. (You can use a food processor, but I just used a whisk).
2. Add salt to taste.
3. Spoon sauce onto bottom of serving dish. Then top with the cooked monkfish filet. Garnish with the chopped onion and parsley.

Enjoy!