Mackerel with feta, cucumber, apple and shallot salad recipe

Posted by Paula Woodward in Cornwall, Festivals, Food & Drink, Latest News, Local Events,

Our Head Chef Joe Simmonds will make a special appearance at Padstow Christmas Festival, to demonstrate his fantastic culinary skills on stage this year, sharing the spotlight with Rick Stein, Nathan Outlaw and Clare Smyth, along with plenty of other talented chefs.

Ingredients

2 mackerel fillets
30g feta cheese
Half an apple
Quarter of a cucumber
2 shallots
100ml white wine vinegar
100ml water
50g caster sugar
50ml cassis
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
4 teaspoons wasabi paste
1 lime zest and juice
A small amount of cress or pea shoots to serve
Salt and pepper
A splash of cooking oil

Method

Make a pickling liquor by heating the white wine vinegar, water, sugar, and cassis in a saucepan. Bring to the boil.

Take the pickling liquor off the heat. Slice the shallots into half cm rings and place in the liquor.

Next, season the mackerel (it’s best to do this five minutes before cooking). Add a splash of oil to a frying pan and place on a low heat to warm up.

Dice the apple neatly and place in a bowl. Squeeze lime juice from half the lime over the apple. Dice the feta and add to the bowl.

Peel the cucumber and dice (or, if you have a melon baller make 10 balls of cucumber). Add to the bowl and season with salt.

Place the mackerel skin down in the pan and hold down for ten seconds so it doesn’t curl.

While the mackerel is cooking, add the wasabi paste to the mayonnaise with a squeeze of lime juice.

Go back to the mackerel. In total, this should be cooked for 4-5 minutes on the skin side only, on a medium heat.

While the mackerel is finishing off, start assembling the ingredients on the plate with a swipe of the wasabi mayonnaise. Dot the apple cucumber and feta around plate, then take the shallot rings out of the liquor and lean a few of them against against the diced salad.

When the mackerel is 90% cooked, flip over, take off the heat and place on your salad. Garnish with lime zest, a pinch of pepper and cress or pea shoots.