Monkfish curry just plain gets it!
I’m a big fan of monkfish. In fact I wasn’t sure if I should cook it into a curry the first time I did.
I needn’t have worried. This monkfish curry is one of my all time favourite curry house style curries.
If you’re looking for something really different and better than you’ll find on most curry house menus, this is one you’ve got to try.

Any firm white fish can be used in this curry.
FORWARD PREPARATION
You will need to make my base curry sauce before starting this recipe. You could try the small portion which is enough for this recipe or the large batch which will make many curries.
Once you’ve mastered the quick and easy art of making curry sauce, you’ll be eating like this all the time!
With that magic base sauce, you can throw this together very quickly without having to chop onions or anything else for that matter.
It is also a good idea to get your ingredients together before starting cooking. This makes everything a lot easier.
Monkfish curry is one of the fastest BIR curries to make
Monkfish is a delicious and meaty fish. The sauce, however is great with many other seafood varieties.
Mussels, clams, seabass… you name it, it will probably be really good.
Seafood cooks really quickly so there is no need to pre-cook it as in other restaurant style curries. Be sure to watch it carefully. You just want to cook the monkfish through. Perfect monkfish curry every time!
WHAT TO SERVE THIS MONKFISH CURRY WITH
You could serve this delicious curry on its own or together some of the other British Indian restaurant (BIR) curries on my site.
There is so much lovely flavour in the curry you won’t need anything else but a portion of fluffy white rice or chapati and perhaps a good cold beer or two to wash it down.
To make this monkfish curry recipe easier, I have included step by step photos of the cooking process below.

Heat the oil over medium high heat in the pan and then stir in the garlic and ginger paste.

Stir in the ground spices.

Stir in the tomato puree and bring to a rolling simmer.

Stir in a ladle or so of the base sauce and bring to simmer. Add more when your curry is looking dry.

Now stir in the monkfish and ensure it is coated with the bubbling sauce.

Add the coconut milk and stir well.

Add the kasoori methi (dried fenugreek) leaves and coriander (cilantro) and stir these in.

See the crusty bit around the edges? This is caramelised base sauce. Scrape and stir this in for fantastic flavour.
If you like the look of this restaurant style monkfish curry recipe, you might like to try some of these too…
Seafood curry
Easy monkfish curry (no base)
Easy prawn curry
Keralan fish curry
Prawn Pathia – restaurant style

So good with an ice cold beer!

Dig in!
How To Make Monkfish Curry Just Like They Do At The Fancy Indian Restaurants
Ingredients
Instructions
I hope you enjoy this monkfish curry. If you do give it a try, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.
Brilliant food and easily eaxplained thank you xx
Thank you for that Jennifer. Comments like that make it all worth it.
Dan
Wow! That looks amazing!
Thanks Anna
It was quite nice. 🙂
Wow! That looks so delicious. I have not tried making fish curry with monk fish. I generally make mine with tilapia
Hi Vijitha
I would love to try that. We can’t get tilapia here. The monk fish works well though.
And how is tilapia curry?
Tried this for dinner and it was fantastic..added king prawns for a bit of different texture and it worked really well. Will definitely be batch cooking the curry sauce. Thanks for a great recipe.
Thank you for that Emly. Really glad you liked the recipe.
Dan
Lush recipe. I added finely chopped spring onion stems to the sauce and fried sliced white onion before the monk fish. A few mins before serving, added chopped plum tomatoes.
Probably one of the best curries I’ve made to date, thank you!
Great to hear Hayley. 🙂
Thanks
Dan
Here we go preparing everything now, I’ll let you know how it goes.
Hi Rob
Thanks. Would love to hear how it went well.
Dan
Hi Dan I love making curry and have bought some monkfish to use for a change. I saw this recipe and thought that it looked extremely nice. I’m just a little confused about the three cups of curry sauce it specifies using in the ingredients list.
What curry sauce do you use? Please could you help me on the matter as I’m really geared up to cook this dish..
Many thanks rob?
Hi Rob
Thanks for your question. Just use the base curry sauce on my site. It is on the home page. You could also type base curry sauce into the search.
Dan
So where does the lemon juice figure? Why do you say cook the fish with the sauce, then state that you should part-cook the fish seporately THEN add the sauce? Some attention to detail wouldn’t go amiss.
I wouldn’t make this one if I were you. 🙂 But thanks.
Dan
That was exceptional one of the most tasty currys I have made and that is saying something as I live in Leicester and my daughter in law is Goan.
Great to hear Bob!
Thank you,
Dan
I have to agree with r.sewell’s comments 24.10.16 ….
Your method does not follow the list of ingredients so it’s not clear whether additional spices are used prior to adding the curry sauce, which if you’re cooking in the pan as you go, will be warm. You mention pre-made sauce but the method comes across unclear.
I’ll give it a go, but as r.sewell said, it needs attention to detail which was a fair comment but you haven’t picked up on that in your response. Only wanting to help. How many (confused) others haven’t made your recipe I wonder.
Hi Patty
I apologise if the recipe is confusing, I will check it and change.
Dan
How many Calories is in this?
Hi
I am afraid I don’t have the calorie information.
Thanks
Dan
Hi Dan – what is the ‘mixed powder’ you refer to in the e ingredients please.
Many Thanks
Spencer
Mixed powder is widely available in Asian shops inexpensively or you could make your own.
If you really can’t get any use curry powder.
Thanks
Dan