Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Grilled mackerel with parsley, lemon and garlic

OK, here's a quickie to make the most of that mackerel. By the way, mackerel is one of the cheapest fish but also supposed to be very good for you.

All those Omega-3 fatty acids and what-not. So you can't beat it, even if it is maybe not the most refined fish around.

Here's what I do with mackerel - I didn't fridge-Google this by the way, but perhaps you found this recipe by fridge-Googling!

Gut and clean the mackerel (the worst bit by far). Most normal people can manage 1 large or two small mackerels at most, so here I have prepared 5 for myself and Mrs. D!

Next, prepare the following ingredients:

  • lemon
  • parsley
  • pepper
  • garlic
  • rosemary
  • bay leaves


The pepper and rosemary are basically for on top of the mackerel, the rest are for stuffing. I stuff the inside of the mackerel with parsley, garlic, bay leaves and lemon in that order, using the lemon to "plug" the whole and cocktail sticks to hold it all in.

Then I ground the pepper and sprinkle the rosemary on top (DON'T leave out the rosemary, whatever you do, it is awesome with mackerel) and pour olive oil over, too.

There's really no science to it, the point is that the stuffing will spread a lovely flavour all over the inside of the fish.

Pop all this in the oven at a medium to high temperature. I cover it with aluminium foil for the first 15 minutes, just to get it cooked properly. Then uncover and grill until it's all lovely and brown.

The end result is this.


Mmmm... Serve with white wine and a nice potato salad, I think (see pic at the top). By the way, it is OK to remove all that stuffing once you come to eat it, it's done its job! If you have any tips on how to easily remove the bones from mackerel, now THAT would be worth fridge-Googling for!

Epilogue: I must just add that after completing this meal and serving it up for myself and Mrs. D, I got some more lemon to squeeze onto the mackerel and gave the slice an almighty squeeze. A massive squirt of lemon juice shot out, straight into my right eye, causing not a little discomfort for the ensuing few minutes before I washed it out. So the moral is, watch where you point that lemon!

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