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Nathan Horner shares his cooking experience....
Post subjecting myself to what can only be described as quite literally an alarmingly forgettable
rack of lamb, which found itself served gestated in a thick cider cream sauce and misexecution,
the resulting penetrating throb of incompetence naturally inspired, as I’m sure it would for most
people, that I should go to the fish butchers or whatever it’s called and purchase a tail of
monkfish. The throb was further enhanced due to the confusion of dealing with kilos and paying
with cash at the fish mongers, however I went home to produce a dish that now in retrospect has
the title of ‘the best thing I have eaten this month… that I can remember’.
I began by frying some ginger, garlic and shallots in a little bit of olive oil, poured in a slightly more
than the appropriate amount of red wine, reduced, added single cream, lowered to a slightly less
than mild simmer and accidentally dropped in the monkfish, but not to worry. I allowed the
monkfish to poach in the liquid, and once the poaching had become the poached I dressed the
dish in some rose petals, which are potentially inedible and discovered I had created a perfectly
pink, perfectly cooked, possibly slightly toxic poached monkfish in red wine.
To be honest the phrase style over substance sprinted off the tongue like a violently required
verbal sorbet after eating, but the pretentiousness of using gimmicky rose petals and monkfish
instead of lobster because it’s cheaper gave it a memorable charm, much like an old 70’s Italian
car would; simple, looked good, made on the cheap, potentially dangerous, and doesn’t have any
lamb in it.
Words: Nathan Horner