Hats off to Hugh FW for this one – a great mackerel recipe making the most of our seasonal mackerel glut here in the UK at this time of year. Gluten free too, nice one Hugh.
Yesterday was another bonanza day in the boat – 3 hours fishing yielded over 30 take-homeable mackerel, and not a little fun either.
So onto the recipe…
Fry 3 finely sliced onions in a little olive oil with 3 or 4 bay leaves and a sprig of thyme. Cook them really slowly so they don’t brown; just end up really soft and sweet. When the onions are ready (10-15 minutes), add a glass of white wine and a small handful of olives (I used capers as we didn’t have any olives in, and they were really good with the mackerel.)
I like to season the mackerel first with a little salt and a fair amount of freshly ground black pepper. Pop the mackerel fillets in flesh side down for 3 minutes or so then flip them for about the same time. Clear a space in the onions to put the mackerel into.
The greens recipe
Take a bunch of spring greens – those big elephant ear looking things that look as if they should have graced a farmer’s table in the late 1940’s when real food was short. Yes, them. Cut out the stalks and slice thinly. Parboil for about 4 minutes in salted water, then drain.
Slice 3 or 4 slices of prosciutto into 1 cm strips and fry in olive oil with chopped garlic, taking care not to burn the garlic. Add the drained greens and fry for about 4 minutes. Season.
Serve the mackerel on top of the onion, greens on the side and you have a very, very tasty dish indeed. Now all I need is another couple of dozen gluten free mackerel recipes to deal with the rest of the glut. It’s a hard life 😉
