If you were to ask my wife how does she want her fish cooked I can bet the answer would be: pan fried. So naturally I cook fish this method most often. Usually it would be sea bass or cod fillets, sometimes salmon. However, recently I decided to give it a try with mackerel. As you probably already learned I really like fish and I try to have it in my diet around twice a week. Mackerel usually features there in a form of smoked fillets but I decided that I would like to use fresh fillet. It was a hit! At least for us. I appreciate that mackerel is not everyone’s cup of tea (can you say that?). It have very strong fishy taste so it has to be paired with equally distinctive flavours such as red ratatouille. If you love bold fishy flavours it is a perfect choice. As an oily fish mackerel is rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Also mackerel is one of the most sustainable sea resources these days and I think we don’t eat enough of it. So try this recipe and if you like fish you will not be disappointed!

Serves 2 (but is easily scalable)

Ingredients:

• 2 mackerel fillets, skin on
• 1 tblsp rapeseed oil
• 30g butter
• Salt and pepper to season
• ½ portion Red Ratatouille

Method:

1. Pinbone the fillets if necessary and pat dry with kitchen towels.
2. In the meantime cook the ratatouille as per recipe here (or re heat if you cooked it earlier and reserved half of the batch)
3. Heat the oil in a non stick frying pan over a medium heat, add butter and seasoning.
4. When the butter is hot and foaming, add the mackerel fillets and fry them slowly skin side down for about 2 – 3 minutes until the skin is crisp and lightly brown.
5. Turn the fish over and cook skin side up for another 1 minutes until the flesh is opaque and firm.
6. Spoon ¼ of the ratatouille batch on to each of the individual plates. Place the mackerel fillet on each, skin side uppermost and serve immediately.

Bulgur wheat is a great accompaniment to this dish. Served with a glass of Muscadet.