Salt cured mackerel fillet salad with grapefruit, samphire, quick “pickled” radishes and shallots served with crispy toasted rye read.
There are lots of elements to this light main course salad, but there is only 5-6 minutes of cooking time, the rest of it is all preparation and presentation!
Blow Torched Cured Mackerel Fillet With Asparagus.
I have eluded to the fact that I love mackerel a lot here on Krumpli. I often lament the fact that good fresh mackerel fillet is so hard to get my hands on.
This cured mackerel fillet salad represents part of the spectrum of my food heaven. I don’t really care what my last meal is so long as it has glorious fresh mackerel on it!
Most of my mackerel recipes here on Krumpli feature smoked mackerel. They are pretty diverse and range from a mackerel kedgeree to this smoked mackerel salad with apple and bacon.
I’m serious! Give me all of the ingredients in the world to choose from and I’m making a beeline any mackerel recipe.
I’m sure the queue will be fairly short with everyone making a move towards steaks and lobster and maybe even turbot. But for me you can not beat the humble cured mackerel!
So imagine my joy at finding fresh mackerel for this lightly cured and blow torched mackerel recipe.
You don’t even need to do a lot with it. This beautiful plate of fresh food takes 30 minutes to put together and tastes a million dollars.
To be perfectly honest drive a stick through it, add salt & lemon and cook in front of an open fire and I’m good!
The Kitchen Blowtorch!
Seriously, get one. Not one of the lame ‘creme brulee’ blowtorches from Amazon. Get a big ass blow torch from your local DIY superstore, the type that a plumber uses.
I use mine all the time, gives a perfect glaze and is awesome for cooking small fillets of fish.
They essentially do the same thing as a broiler. You can cook this under a grill/broiler but you don’t have quite as much control. Your blowtorch allows you to get things perfectly blistered.
These mackerel fillets took seconds to crisp up and were cured and cooked perfectly.
They also come into their own when adding flourishes to dishes too, so the pomelo gets a flash from the blowtorch in this cured mackerel fillet recipe.
Oh yeah, a blowtorch is also the very best way to start a grill!
What Is A Pomelo Fruit?
The pomelo side for this dish is a but of an indulgence. It is a really ancient citrus fruit from South and South East Asia.
If you can get your hands on please do it is kind of like a melon. In fact, the flavour is very similar to melon but with far less of the bitter sour taste.
It is altogether a bit more refined and less shouty, which is perfect for this mackerel recipe!
However, substitute it for melon or orange it will be awesome. You could even use watermelon, because that stuff is wonderful grilled. Check out the grilled watermelon side with these prawns.
Apart from that the asparagus and radish comes from my garden, picked fresh and washed of dirt half an hour before this picture was taken. Zero food miles!
Salt Cured Mackerel Salad Recipe with Samphire and Grapefruit
This simple midweek salad features quick salt cured mackerel fillets with toasted rye bread, samphire and quick "pickled" radishes and shallots, it's gloriously vibrant and zingy and outrageously tasty!
Ingredients
- 4 (350g) Total Mackerel Fillets
- 50g (2-3 Small) Shallots
- 50g (4-5 Small) Radishes
- 1 (350g) Red Grapefruit
- 2 Tbsp Rapeseed Oil
- 20g (1 Tbsp) Honey
- 150g (½ Cup) Salt (Plus extra to season the dressing)
- 50g (¼ Cup) Sugar
- 75g (1½ Cups) Samphire
- 50ml (3-4 Tbsp) Water
- 75g (2 Slices) Rye Bread
Instructions
- If your mackerel fillets are not pin-boned, either v-cut out the bones or get to work with some tweezers and remove them. Then flip over the fillets so they are flesh side down and make shallow cuts through the skin around 1cm (½") apart from each other.
- Peel the shallots, cut them into rounds as thinly as you can (around 1mm) and place them in a small-medium bowl.
- Top and tail the radishes and cut them into rounds the same thickness as the onions, then toss them into the bowl with the shallots.
- Zest the grapefruit and set the zest aside. Then top and tail the grapefruit, and cut the zest from the flesh using a sharp kitchen knife forming a barrel of flesh. Cut the segments from the membrane (do this over a bowl to save the juice) and set them aside, then squeeze out the juice from the remaining membrane.
- Take 1 tablespoon of the juice and place it in a jar with the rapeseed oil, half of the honey, ½ teaspoon of the grapefruit zest and a pinch of salt and black pepper (do this to taste), place the lid on the jar, give it a shake and set it aside.
- Mix the salt and sugar with the remaining grapefruit zest and set aside.
- Add the remaining grapefruit juice to a small 15cm or 6" saucepan, add the remaining tablespoon of honey and set it aside.
- Take 2 baking trays and sprinkle around a third of the salt and sugar mix over one of the trays and spread it out so that it is roughly the same size as the mackerel fillets, and place the mackerel fillets onto, skin side down. Sprinkle the remaining curing salt over the flesh of the mackerel, cover with baking parchment, add the second baking tray to weigh down the fish and place it in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Place the saucepan with the honey, and grapefruit juice on the hob/stove top and bring it to a boil. Then pour this "pickling" mixture over the shallots and radishes, mix and allow it to sit for 10 minutes, then drain the veggies and set them aside.
- Whilst the fish is curing and the pickles are sitting, place the grapefruit slices on a baking tray and give them a bit of colour with a blow torch, you can slide them under a hot grill (broiler) if you prefer.
- When the mackerel has had 20 minutes remove it from the curing mix, rinse it under cold water to remove any excess salt and dry it well with kitchen paper.
- Cut 2 slices of rye bread to a thickness of around 7-12mm (¼-½") depending on your preference. Just before you are ready to serve heat a griddle pan and toast the rye bread on both sides.
- Whilst the bread is toasting heat a 30cm or 12" frying pan over a high heat and add 3-4 tablespoons of water, when it boils toss in the samphire and cook it for 2 minutes, then drain and set aside.
- Finally, place the mackerel on a tray and give it a quick blast with a blow torch to warm the skin a little, again you can do this under a hot grill or broiler if you prefer.
- Finally serve drizzled with the dressing you made earlier.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 805Total Fat: 47gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 34gCholesterol: 131mgSodium: 1548mgCarbohydrates: 50gFiber: 6gSugar: 24gProtein: 47g
Calorific details are provided by a third-party application and are to be used as indicative figures only.
Dannii
Friday 21st of April 2017
What a lovely fresh and delicious dish. It looks perfect for spring time.
Brian Jones
Monday 24th of April 2017
Cheers Dannii
Suzy
Friday 21st of April 2017
What an awesome post! Thanks for sharing!
Brian Jones
Monday 24th of April 2017
Thanks Suzy.
Michelle Frank | Flipped-Out Food
Friday 21st of April 2017
I am a pyro at heart, so anything involving a blowtorch—I'm THERE. I live in Wisconsin, so it's very hard to find fresh seafood that doesn't require me to hand over my left arm at the checkout counter. Combine that with ASPARAGUS pulled from your GARDEN, and I turn a lovely shade of envy-green. I'm headed straight to the seafood counter, though: in the final analysis, this beautiful dish is well worth the pain-in-the-wallet.
Brian Jones
Monday 24th of April 2017
I definitely know how that seafood thing works, I live in landlocked Hungary and have to cross international borders to get seafish or at least the fish does anyway... But hey, we are worth it occasionally right ;)
Platter Talk
Friday 21st of April 2017
Beautifully done! What a tastefully executed dish.
Brian Jones
Monday 24th of April 2017
Cheers Dan,
Jeff
Friday 21st of April 2017
You had me at blowtorch.
Brian Jones
Monday 24th of April 2017
Hahahaha, rahh, manly :D