How to fillet Monkfish

In the last 20 years Monkfish has become one of the most popular species available. Also known as the anglerfish, when whole it looks pretty terrifying. The heads are routinely removed at sea and usually, only the tail is sold. With a single bone running through the tail and a robust meaty texture, it is both versatile and delicious.

Fishmonger Matt's top tips for filleting monkfish:

  1. Make sure you're working on a clean, dry and secure chopping board as well as placing a damp cloth underneath to prevent the board from moving.

  2. Use a sharp knife with flex in the blade approx 6 inches long.

  3. ALWAYS cut away from yourself, keep the sharp pointy thing away from your body!

  4. Maintain clean and confident strokes with the blade, the more cutting you do, the poorer the fillet of monkfish.

  5. Put adequate pressure on the blade by maintaining a consistent downward pressure to maximise yield against bone, be cautious not to apply too much, however!

  6. If you're a complete novice, firstly welcome! Secondly, practice filleting on cheaper fish such as mackerel to avoid disappointing cuts on expensive fish like monkfish.

  7. If in doubt; leave it to the professionals and order superb fillets of monkfish in Cornwall. We don't mind if you take the credit!

Get Fresh & Delicious Monkfish here

Chef Adam Recommends:

I recommend you cook monkfish with strong flavours like curry. It also works very well on the BBQ and can even be cooked on the bone similarly to a shoulder of lamb. Chef Adam has made some other fantastic recipes in our development kitchen, see them here:

The best Fish Recipes

Is Monkfish healthy for me?

Yes, it is, Monkfish is a good source of Omega 3 providing 140mg per 100g of fish.

Is Monkfish sustainable?

We are pleased to say yes, monkfish is sustainable, we even made a video about it here:

Sustainable Monkfish