Gladys - Monkfish

Have you ever had the "pleasure" of looking a monkfish in the face????

Once, while on the Cape, we were wading near the edge of a sandbar, and saw this Gawd'awful looking, almost prehistoric fish having trouble getting back out into deep water - people were literally poking at it, and being rather cruel to it. My DH shoo'd them away, and although it was probably not the smartest thing to do, given that mouth and set of teeth, he maneuvered it back to water and we watched it glide off.

After seeing it, I asked what it was, and of course it was a monkfish. I would never have thought about eating it, but last summer, a Cape Cod friend said that one of her fishermen friends had given her a dressed out monkfish body/tail and would I like it, since she couldn't bear to even look at it or touch it!!

Since I had heard that the texture was similar to lobster, I decided to try a bisque-like chowder with the pieces cut up bite-size. It was incredibly delicious. It isn't easy to come by here or on Cape Cod, but I wanted to thank you for the sauce, because it sounded like it would be good over fluke (flounder) which we catch all the time. I'm always looking for different ways to make it and this sounds wonderful - thanks!

We'll be leaving for Cape Cod in a few weeks, so hope to try it out later on.

June