Technical challenge: Mackerel Escabeche
Hello!
Today's technical challenge is Mackerel Escabeche with honey and mustard-dressed potatoes, dill and horseradish and black pepper cream. This will be nice as a starter, or a light main course; use 2 fillets per person in this case. This is a nice and light reminder of the Summer that seems to have gone in the past few days. Plus this is a great one to pull a lady (or man)... just saying...
Serves 4 (double fish quantity for two people.)
Shopping list
4 mackerel fillets (halves. 8 halves if main course)
1 bag waxy potatoes (charlottes work well here) About 4 tennis ball-sized new potatoes are required.
fresh dill (must be fresh this time, unfortunately)
whipping cream
larder
Salt& Pepper
Horseradish (from a jar is fine, it's what I'm going to be doing)
honey (squeezy runny or fancy, doesn't matter)
extra virgin olive oil
white wine vinegar
whole grain mustard
Equipment
Kettle
2 Pans
2 (or 4) sandwich bags, sealable with the plastic strips, not adhesive glue.
Fish prep
Ask the guy at the fish counter of your Supermarche to fillet and bone the mackerel for you. Try and buy as fresh as you can. When prepping, check for bones yourself, just to be sure. Take your knife and slice two tramlines through the centre of each fillet, flesh side up, and length-ways. Do not cut too deep as you'll halve the fish in the process. the cuts should form a V shape and be just deep enough to remove the pin bones. The big ribs should already be removed but if not, slice along the top at a shallow angle to just take them off. Tweezers could also work here but for simplicity's sake, I've knifed them. Put the fillets in the sadwich bags, two to a bag and season with salt and pepper. Then add 1 tsp of chopped dill to the bag, the olive oil to cover and a tsp of vinegar to each bag. Leave this to cure at room temperature for half an hour.
Potatoes
Blanch these for 3 minutes and plunge into cold water, removing the skins. Now cut into even 1cm cubes and place into a bowl with the 2 tsp honey, 3tsp olive oil, 1tsp mustard and mix well. Throw a pinch of salt into this and mix again. Place these in a deep pan and cook over a low heat until tender. Set to one side to cool down.
Cream
Whip 75ml of whipping cream to classic whipped-cream texture (NOT from a can) using a whisk, bowl and elbow grease. To this, add a few grinds of the pepper mill, lightly salt and a tsp of horseradish. Whip and leave to chill.
Fish cooking
Pour some boiling water into a pan, add a mug-full of cold water to bring the temperature down to circa 60 degrees centigrade. Alternatively, if you have a thermometer, use that and bring the water to 63 degrees. Now put the SEALED fish bags into the water, and control the temperature to keep it constant. Leave in there for 8 minutes.
Serving
Place a spoonful of the cream on each plate to begin with. On top of this, place a pile of the potatoes, keeping most of the dressing with them. Carefully lift the fish out of the bags and place on top of the potatoes. Sprinkle with chopped dill and serve warm (just above room temperature).
Hope this goes well; it's a nice cheap luxury at the end of a hard week. Let's see some pictures from some of you adventurous types.
BenY
Today's technical challenge is Mackerel Escabeche with honey and mustard-dressed potatoes, dill and horseradish and black pepper cream. This will be nice as a starter, or a light main course; use 2 fillets per person in this case. This is a nice and light reminder of the Summer that seems to have gone in the past few days. Plus this is a great one to pull a lady (or man)... just saying...
Serves 4 (double fish quantity for two people.)
Shopping list
4 mackerel fillets (halves. 8 halves if main course)
1 bag waxy potatoes (charlottes work well here) About 4 tennis ball-sized new potatoes are required.
fresh dill (must be fresh this time, unfortunately)
whipping cream
larder
Salt& Pepper
Horseradish (from a jar is fine, it's what I'm going to be doing)
honey (squeezy runny or fancy, doesn't matter)
extra virgin olive oil
white wine vinegar
whole grain mustard
Equipment
Kettle
2 Pans
2 (or 4) sandwich bags, sealable with the plastic strips, not adhesive glue.
Fish prep
Ask the guy at the fish counter of your Supermarche to fillet and bone the mackerel for you. Try and buy as fresh as you can. When prepping, check for bones yourself, just to be sure. Take your knife and slice two tramlines through the centre of each fillet, flesh side up, and length-ways. Do not cut too deep as you'll halve the fish in the process. the cuts should form a V shape and be just deep enough to remove the pin bones. The big ribs should already be removed but if not, slice along the top at a shallow angle to just take them off. Tweezers could also work here but for simplicity's sake, I've knifed them. Put the fillets in the sadwich bags, two to a bag and season with salt and pepper. Then add 1 tsp of chopped dill to the bag, the olive oil to cover and a tsp of vinegar to each bag. Leave this to cure at room temperature for half an hour.
Potatoes
Blanch these for 3 minutes and plunge into cold water, removing the skins. Now cut into even 1cm cubes and place into a bowl with the 2 tsp honey, 3tsp olive oil, 1tsp mustard and mix well. Throw a pinch of salt into this and mix again. Place these in a deep pan and cook over a low heat until tender. Set to one side to cool down.
Cream
Whip 75ml of whipping cream to classic whipped-cream texture (NOT from a can) using a whisk, bowl and elbow grease. To this, add a few grinds of the pepper mill, lightly salt and a tsp of horseradish. Whip and leave to chill.
Fish cooking
Pour some boiling water into a pan, add a mug-full of cold water to bring the temperature down to circa 60 degrees centigrade. Alternatively, if you have a thermometer, use that and bring the water to 63 degrees. Now put the SEALED fish bags into the water, and control the temperature to keep it constant. Leave in there for 8 minutes.
Serving
Place a spoonful of the cream on each plate to begin with. On top of this, place a pile of the potatoes, keeping most of the dressing with them. Carefully lift the fish out of the bags and place on top of the potatoes. Sprinkle with chopped dill and serve warm (just above room temperature).
Hope this goes well; it's a nice cheap luxury at the end of a hard week. Let's see some pictures from some of you adventurous types.
BenY
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