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Mackerel escabeche
Serves 4 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 1 carrot
- 1/4 bulb fennel
- 1 onion
- 1 garlic clove
For the escabeche
- 250ml white wine
- 250ml water
- 10 coriander seeds
- pinch roughly crushed pepper
- pinch coarse salt
- juice of 1 lemon
- sprig thyme
- 1 small bay leaf
- 75ml olive oil
- 75ml white balsamic vinegar
- 4 mackerel fillets
Method
Peel and trim the carrot, then cut into rounds. Wash and finely slice the fennel. Peel and finely chop the onion. Peel and halve the garlic clove, removing any green shoot from its centre.
To make the escabeche, mix together all the ingredients except for the mackerel in a wide saucepan. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and leave the mixture to cook over a very gentle heat for 20 minutes.
While the escabeche is cooking, rinse the mackerel fillets thoroughly under cold running water. Using small tongs or tweezers, remove any remaining bones from the fish, then chill. When the escabeche is ready, strain it through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan, reserving the vegetables and flavourings.
Season the mackerel fillets with a little salt and put them into a non-metallic dish.
Bring the escabeche back to a simmer, then pour over the fish. Add the reserved vegetables and flavourings, cover with cling film and leave to cool. Once cool, chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
When the mackerel and escabeche are well chilled, stir the juices a little then serve.
If you can, prepare this the night before you want to serve it: the longer the mackerel marinates in the escabeche with the vegetables, the better it will be.
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