With an extra long Easter break this year, Scotty and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to head to Currumbin in QLD to spend some time with his dad. We spent three nights in Currumbin from Good Friday to Easter Monday. Below is a pic to give you an idea of the beautiful weather and the view from the balcony – jealous much?
It had started to get cold back in Sydney so it was wonderful to be able to swim in the ocean a few more times and enjoy some beautiful weather. The real treat for us though, was the food we ate while in Currumbin. QLD really does have the most amazing seafood and if I lived there, I would be very hard pressed not to serve seafood as the star of every meal I cooked!
Scotty’s step brother and sister-in-law are wonderful cooks and so we were very fortunate to share two evening meals out of three at their house. We ate very well that weekend and while the first meal we had at Matt and Robyn’s was wonderful, it was the meal we shared on the final night at their house – which we also contributed to – that was the most memorable.
Scotty’s dad had told us he had some NZ Monk fish fillets (also known as poor man’s lobster or Stargazer) in the fridge to take to Matt and Robyn’s. We decided that we could contribute to dinner by crumbing the fish to cook when we arrived. It turned out perfectly! The fish was very moist and as a result was easy to crumb and easy to cook.
CRUMBED MONK FISH
4 Monk fish fillets in large pieces
2 handfuls plain flour
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
5 handfuls breadcrumbs
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tablespoon Japanese dried chilli flakes
3 tablespoons soy sesame seeds*
Salt & Pepper
Small handful of chopped parsley
*We found soy sauce flavoured sesame seeds at our local Asian grocer. You will be absolutely surprised at how many things we use them for!
It’s simple to crumb fish really. You will need three bowls – in the first bowl put the flour, in the second put the eggs and milk and whisk with a spoon until combined, in the third put the rest of the ingredients. The flour sticks to the fish easily and helps the egg to stick, then the egg helps the crumbs stick and stay on the fish both when crumbing and cooking.
Working from bowl one to three, take each fillet and coat in flour on both sides then coat in egg on both sides, then transfer to the final bowl and coat in the crumbs all over. Make sure you press down on the fish when crumbing so that it sticks to the egg nicely. Finally when removing from the crumbs, shake gently so that all the loose crumbs fall back in the bowl.
Once we had crumbed all the fish fillets we still had flour, eggs and crumbs left so Scotty went in search of other things to crumb. After being handed a cauliflower softened in the microwave and cut into small florets we crumbed that too!
We crumbed the fish and cauliflower at Scott’s dad’s house then all bundled into the car to head to Matt and Robyn’s with two bottles of wine in tow as a peace offering for the amount of wine we had consumed at their place on Good Friday night. When we got to Matt and Robyn’s all was in full swing in the kitchen, so we joined in by grabbing a pan to start shallow frying the fish and cauliflower. We were delighted to see many seafood offerings being prepared simultaneously in the one kitchen.
How much oil?
And how long to cook the fish?