Pick up some nice, locally caught monkfish from your fish merchant (a tail around 1.5-2kg will make around 6 portions, or alternatively you could use smaller tails around 300gs and use a tail per portion).

First start by prepping the monkfish. If you’re not comfortable doing this, you can ask your fishmonger to carry this out:

- Remove the skin from the monkfish - this process is a little like removing a sock, get a firm grip of the fish and firmly, but carefully, pull the skin back away from the flesh
- Then remove the membrane from the monk tail. This is the silver looking skin, and it’s removed by using a very sharp knife and long motions going around the tail to leave a clean white meat.
- With a sharp knife, portion your monk tail through the bone into 200g portions (or larger if you’re hungry!) Again you could ask the fish monger to do this part for you if you prefer.

Next, it’s time to prepare a fish stock:

- In a large saucepan, gently sweat 2 x onions (in 3cm chunks), 1 x fennel bulb (again in 3cm chunks), 4 x cloves garlic with the germ removed, and 2 x sticks celery (3cm chunks) being
careful not to let them colour.
- Lightly roast 1kg of fish bones (available from your local fish merchant), adding any trim from the monkfish. Be careful to only lightly roast, this should ideally not be too dark just golden brown.
- Add 300 ml white wine, simmering until reduced by half.
- Add the roasted bones.
- Cover with water and bring to the boil.
- With a ladle, skim the film off the top of the stock as it comes to the boil.
- Turn the heat down and allow to simmer for 25 minutes.
- Allow to cool for 15/20 minutes and the pass through a fine sieve.

For the sauce:
- Sweat off 1 x large white onion, finely diced.
- Add 5 spoons of green peppercorns (not the dried ones).
- Add 500 ml of dry, Cornish cider (Scrumpy works really well, although there are plenty of others to choose from).
- Allow to reduce by half.
- Add 2L of your fish stock and reduce by half.
- Add 400g of Cornish clotted cream (Rodda’s is delicious) and bring to the boil. Simmer for 2 minutes.
- Finish the sauce with some finely chopped parsley, chives and dill, and squeeze of lemon.

To garnish the dish:
- Prepare a cauliflower puree by sweating off a whole cauliflower, cut into 5 cm pieces, in a large frying pan.
- Add a little milk and cream, cook for 5 minutes and then blend until smooth.

Pickled red onion cup:
- Peel and then cut the top and bottom from a peeled red onion before slicing across the middle of the onion to give 2 halves. Cook these halves slowly in pan of red wine pickling liquid made with equal parts red wine, red wine vinegar, sugar and water brought to the boil.
- Cook the onions until soft.
- Remove from the pickle and color off in a frying pan, remove the center rings from the onion to make a “cup” to place the puree into.

When the sauce is made, the onion is pickled and the puree is ready, you can cook your monkfish:
- Pre-heat an oven to 180 °C and then into a hot frying pan place the monkfish, top side down, cooking on a medium heat until there is a light, golden brown colour on the flesh.
- Transfer into the oven and cook for around 8 minutes until an internal temperature of 62 is achieved.
- Remove fish from the oven and place somewhere warm to rest whilst you plate the dish (as artistically as you fancy!).