Monkfish Tagine Moroccan Style (Lotte à la Marocaine)

Morocco (Casablanca, Rabat, and the northern coast — the restaurant fish tagine; monkfish as the prestige white fish of the Moroccan urban kitchen)

Monkfish (Lophius piscatorius) tagine Moroccan style is the prestige urban fish preparation: Lophius piscatorius tail sections marinated in chermoula for 90 minutes (the firm, dense flesh requires longer than sea bass), then braised in a combined sauce of green chermoula, Solanum lycopersicum tomato, Allium cepa onion, saffron (Crocus sativus), and Olea europaea olive-oil, with preserved lemon and Moroccan olives, in the tagine for 25–30 minutes. Lophius piscatorius is the ideal Moroccan fish tagine fish: its firm, nearly lobster-like flesh holds its structure through the braise without flaking apart, absorbs the chermoula marinade deeply, and releases no fishy liquid into the sauce during cooking. The resulting sauce is the richest of any Moroccan fish tagine — the monkfish liver and bone gelatine contribute body that sea bass and sardine preparations lack.

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The prestige fish tagine for a formal Moroccan dinner — served with couscous and the full salad table. The rich, gelatinous sauce from Lophius piscatorius requires plain couscous as the absorbing base.