Sustainable Fish Recipes for Dinner: Mackerel with Mediterranean Style Salad and Garlic Toast

Although I have taken a little bit of a break from fish on this blog in the past couple of postings, I have still been working away, creating sustainable fish recipes in support of, "The Big Fish Fight." It is vital that we do not lose sight of this campaign and what it is hoping to achieve, in the wake of the initial flurry of publicity. For this reason, I will continue to add to the resources relating to the cause which are included in the right hand column of this blog and posting regular sustainable fish dinner ideas on this page.

Mackerel is the sustainable fish which I am featuring tonight. This recipe not only takes account of a sustainable type of fish, it is also extremely healthy in all respects. The recipe is very adaptable, with the salad ingredients variable depending upon taste and the mackerel is equally delicious served hot or cold. In this instance, I am serving the mackerel cold, with only the garlic toast being served hot.

Ingredients for Two People

2 fillets of fresh mackerel
8 to 10 lettuce leaves
2 medium tomatoes
4" piece of cucumber
12 pitted black olives
1 small stick of celery
Half a small red onion
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil plus extra for frying mackerel
1 tsp white wine vinegar
2 cloves of garlic
4 large basil leaves
2 tbsp plain/all purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 slices from French style loaf

Method

The dressing for the salad should be prepared first and ideally a couple of hours in advance. This will allow the flavours time to fully infuse. The olive oil and white wine vinegar should be added to a small bowl. The basil should be chopped and added along with the peeled and grated garlic clove. Season lightly with salt and pepper, stir very well, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate until required.

The mackerel fillets in this recipe are pan fried in olive oil. Add some olive oil to a large, non-stick frying pan and bring it up to a medium heat. Scatter the flour over a dinner plate and season with salt and pepper. Pat the mackerel fillets in the flour on the skin side only, shake off the excess and place them in to the pan, skin side down. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Fry until they can be seen to have cooked almost all the way through (three or four minutes) before reducing the heat, turning with a fish turner and frying more slowly on the flesh side for a couple of minutes to complete cooking. Remove them to a plate, cover and allow them to cool while the salad and toast is prepared.

The whole idea of a salad like this is that it is rustic and representative of the ancient peasant culture from which it originates. This means that there need be no uniform chopping procedures involved. The one ingredient I do like to make sure I slice fairly thinly is the red onion, as a large bite of onion can be fairly overpowering. Slice the onion, therefore, and add it to the serving dish. Shred the lettuce, half the cucumber lengthwise and chop, half the tomatoes and segment and chop the celery. The black olives should go in whole. Season with salt and pepper and simply turn it over with your hands to mix.

Take the dressing from the refrigerator and give it a thorough, final stir. Drizzle it over the prepared salad.

The garlic toast could not be simpler. The slices of bread are simply placed on a grill tray and toasted lightly on both sides. While they are toasting, the remaining clove of garlic should be peeled and lightly crushed to release the juices. It should then be rubbed gently over the hot toast to impart some of its juices and flavour before the toast is plated for service.

The mackerel fillets should be placed on top of the salad as shown at the top of this post and the two dishes taken to the table. The mackerel fillets and salad can there be transferred to serving plates.