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Moro's fish stew with peppers, almonds and saffron


We cooked this last night for a dinner party. It received a pretty good reaction from everyone. The The thing I like about the recipe is that you can prepare the sauce ahead of time and just cook the fish when you're ready to eat.
The Moro recipe has clams but I don't eat them so I replaced them with an equal quantity of prawns. To get a bit of extra flavour I peeled the prawns and put the heads and shells into the fish stock and cooked them for a few minutes before straining to giveaway little extra depth to the stock as a replacement for the extra flavour the clam shells would add.

The other thing I would encourage is patience, let the onions brown slowly, let the peppers soften likewise. You will be rewarded by a really lovely rich flavour.
serves 4

6 tbsp olive oil
1 large spanish onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 dsp fresh rosemary
3 bay leaves
2 red peppers, quartered, seeded and thinly sliced
1/2 sweet smoked paprika
1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes, drained of juice and finely chopped
150ml white wine
100ml hot fish stock
50 saffron strands, infused in 4 tbsp of boiling water
150g whoe blanched almonds, lightly toasted and roughly ground
650g monkfish fillets (or other firm white fish)
250 g uncooked prawns
sea salt and black pepper

in a large saucepan, heat the oil over a medium heat. Add onion, and a pinch of salt, and cook until golden and sweet - 15-20 mins. Now add garlic, rosemary, bay and peppers. When the peppers are softened (at least 10 minutes) add paprika and tomatoes. Simmer for another 10 minutes, then add white wine and bubble for a couple of minutes before adding fish stock and saffron infused water.

finally, thicken the base with the almonds, and taste for seasoning.

when you are ready to eat, add monkfish and prawns, cover, and simmer until the fish is cooked through.

 We served it with a shaved fennel and rocket salad dressed very simply with olive oil and lemon juice.

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