Piri Piri Mackerel – A little bit of sunshine in winter

Winter really drags in the UK (and probably elsewhere) – especially post-Christmas. We’ve had a lot of snow and cold weather, but finally there’s glimpses of spring, sunshine even and this recipe just lets you know that there can be a little bit of sunshine in your food too, even when on a diet!

My last recipe was a fish dish and I don’t want to give anyone the impression that all I eat is fish. Far from it, I don’t eat enough, but if you are like me then these last 2 recipes might help you change that.

This recipe is adapted from a Rick Stein one I saw on TV ages ago (picture from Rick’s Book on 100 Fish and Seafood recipes). I looked it up online and managed to find it. The original is for barbecued sardines. If I remember rightly Rick shoved them between 2 slices of bread and ate them bones and all! My version uses mackerel fillets and can be pan fried. You can get fresh mackerel from most supermarkets and of course fish mongers and to my delight the lovely fellow on the counter at my local Tesco filleted them for me for free. They were rather hefty specimens too so one and a half did me and my wife for tea leaving a lovely cold fillet for a kind of Salade Nicoise for lunch later on in the week.

Make this as spicy as you like, mackerel can take it. Add it is an oily fish be careful with amounts of extra oil you use. Use a little good quality extra virgin olive oil and not nearly as much as in the original recipe – this is meant to be a low-cal recipe after all.

Ingredients for 2 servings
2 whole fresh mackerel, filleted
For the piri-piri oil:
1 large fresh red chilli finely chopped with some or all if the seeds depending on how got you like it
1/2 clove garlic finely chopped
1/2 a lemon, zest finely chopped, remainder juice
Sea salt
Extra Virgin Olive oil (a splash)
For the salad:
1-2 large vine ripened tomatoes, sliced
1/2 (red) onion very finely sliced
1 chargrilled and skinned red pepper (lightly pickled in a jar will do fine)
Red wine or balsamic vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil (a glug)

Procedure

1. In a pestle and mortar (or food processor), bash the garlic, chilli, salt and lemon zest together to a pulp. Squeeze in the lemon juice and a splash of oil. Grind the mixture around until it turns red. Pass through a sieve, pressing to get all the flavour out. We’re just trying to achieve smooth marinade here without bits of lemon zest or chilli skin/seeds. Rub this all over the mackerel and leave to marinade for 10-60 minutes. If it doesn’t look like there is enough, add a bit of water.

2. Make the salad by slicing all the ingredients and drizzling with a little oil and vinegar. Season well with salt and pepper. Leave for the flavours to infuse whilst you cook the fish.

3. Put a non-stock frying pan over a high heat and put a drop of light olive or sunflower oil in (just enough to lightly coat the bottom of the pan). Put the mackerel in skin side down. Turn down the heat a touch and fry for about 3-5 minutes until the skin is crispy and the edges just look like they ate starting to cook through. Turn the fish over and turn the heat off and leave for a couple more minutes. The residual heat should be enough to complete the cooking without over cooking.

4. Serve with the salad, some boiled new potatoes and green beans. Save some salad and veg for a lunchtime salad with any leftover fish (if there is any!)

A note on mackerel

Recently, the UK Marine Conservation Society decreed that mackerel was no longer a sustainable fish and we should start eating sardines or herring instead. I don’t know if this is true, but this dish was originally for sardines, and if you can be bothered with the fiddly bones, they are a beautiful fish, perhaps slightly tastier than mackerel. You decide.

‘Asian-style’ Fish with Wild Vegetable Rice

This week I am on my own in the house. My wife and the kids have gone to see their grandparents for half term but I have to work. Food and cooking for me when I am on my own can go one of two ways – takeaways and ready-meals or cooking for myself. For anyone who regularly cooks for one (I have a good friend who springs to mind) the temptation must be to buy ready prepared food. A lot of fresh food is packaged for families and actually cooking a single portion of anything can be tricky. The weekend started badly with a lads day and night of football, curry and beer. I did my best to walk off my hangover on Sunday and then on Monday I did my shop for the week. When I am shopping for myself, I am quite impulsive and always buy something that I don’t have often, usually because my family don’t like it. I also take the opportunity to trial some ‘value’ lines as I do love a bargain.

Taking my fancy in my local Tesco were some Tesco Everyday Value Rainbow Trout fillets. I don’t nearly enough fish and nowhere near enough oily fish, so I thought this would be a good time to trial a new recipe. I was also astounded by the price – £1.98. This is farmed trout. I’m not sure how I feel about farmed fish – chefs on TV will tell you look for wild fish for the best taste and texture, but farming strikes me as a good solution to fish sustainability (although I am sure the issue is somewhat more complicated than that). In any case, the fish was snapped up and a few days later I got around to cooking it (I know, fish should be eaten as fresh as possible!).