Grilled Fish Brochettes with Romesco Sauce

Fish always looks nice served on brochettes; if you have some nice fancy kebab sticks these look great, or you can use wooden barbecue sticks too. The wooden ends may burn under the grill and if this bothers you just twist a little foil over the end of each and take off before serving. Here I have used monkfish cubes and cooked it on rosemary stems; monkfish is definitely the best for this recipe although it is rather pricey.

The skewers are flavoured nicely with rosemary, lemon and garlic; don't overcook the fish as it will dry it out and toughen it. If in doubt about whether it is cooked cut into one of the chunks. The Romesco sauce originates from Spain and is quite concentrated; a tablespoon per serving should suffice.

This is the sort of dish one hopes one might encounter in a Greek taverna; simple tasty, good, fresh. However I have yet to come across anything as good as it.

Ingredients (Serves 4)
750 g firm fish in chunks (swordfish, tilapia, monkfish)
2-3 raw prawns per person, peeled, tail on
2 cloves garlic
2 20 cm stalks Rosemary, leaves striped off (or 2 tsp dried)
3 tbsp olive oil
Juice half lemon
Salt and pepper
1 lemon, cut into chunks

Romesco sauce:
1 thick slice white bread
6 whole almonds, blanched
4 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
4 medium sized tomatoes, skinned peeled and chopped
1 red pepper from a jar
Drops Tabasco and lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Method:

Romesco sauce:

Heat the olive oil in a small pan and fry the almonds until they turn a light golden brown, remove and set aside. Drop in the bread cut into chunks and sauté until it starts to brown very lightly and then drop in the garlic, cooking briefly until the bread is a light brown and the garlic is cooked lightly. Pour the contents of the pan over the almonds and leave to cool slightly.

Add the almond, bread, garlic and oil mixture to a blender and process until well ground, stopping 2-3 times and pushing down the contents. Add the tomato and red pepper to the blender and process until smooth, adding a little water if it seems too thick (the sauce is to be served warm alongside the fish brochettes) Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning, adding lemon and Tabasco. Reserve and reheat to hand hot before serving (the sauce keeps well in the fridge for 2-3 days).

The brochettes: Pound the rosemary leaves in a pestle and mortar to break them up and release their aromatic oils, add the garlic and crush it too, then pour in the oil and lemon juice. Toss in all the fish and prawns and add salt and pepper, and mix gently.

Skewer the fish and prawns onto the brochettes, ending with a piece of lemon at each end.

Grill under a very hot preheated grill for 3 minutes each side, serve with the Romesco sauce, rice or chips (somehow I feel there is something dreadfully wrong with this word, but they are great with this dish) and a green salad.