A Taste of Tahiti

Poisson cru au lait de coco

My first taste of poisson cru on the island of Moorea. Rum Punch in the foreground.

 As if my holiday on an island in the Pacific wasn't paradisiacal enough, my host approached me with concern to inquire whether I minded eating a lot of fish.   Fresh and delicious, fished straight from the ocean and cooked on an open fire.  Or alternatively not cooked at all; the Tahitian national dish, Poisson Cru, is a ceviche-like dish made from raw fish, preferably tuna.

UM hello did I mind??  I nearly fell of my deckchair in delight.

I feel it necessary to share the joy of this simple dish.  Unlike ceviche it does not cook in the marinade - the aim is to serve is raw.  So you need a really fresh, good quality catch, sustainably sourced of course.  It melts in the mouth and is good for the body and soul.  Take a taste and be transported to the paradise islands of French Polynesia.

Best served on a private island in the Pacific, with fish freshly caught by beautiful Tahitian men, with coconut milk freshly pressed from the laden palm trees, sitting on a beach overlooking a blue lagoon, at sunset.  Failing that, a dose of imagination is required.

Mass coconut shredding in preparation for Flo's wedding feast

Beautiful men fishing off the reef (le récif) into the Pacific

Poisson cru au lait de coco

(Raw fish in coconut milk)

With many thanks to Flo's Aunty for sharing her recipe.  (NB given age-old recipe and lack of scales on deserted island, this recipe is less exact than usual and quantities are approx - don't feel constrained by them)

Ingredients:
Serves 6
500g fresh, sustainably-sourced tuna
3 tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 clove garlic
1/2 onion
coconut milk (2 tins but may not need all)
To season: lemon or lime (1 or 2 small ones), salt, pepper

Method:

1. Cut the tuna into cubes and rinse in salted water (pref. the sea!)

2. Dice the tomatoes and cucumber. Finely slice the onion and crush the garlic.

3. Season the coconut milk with salt, pepper and lemon/lime juice. (So if you don't have a bowl of fresh milk pressed straight from the day's windfall, I'd advise putting 1 1/2 tins in a bowl and seasoning.  You can add the rest later if you think it needs it).

4. Add all the veg and finally the fish to the coconut milk and serve immediately (you don't want to allow the fish to 'cook' at all in the lemon/lime juice).

Ma'a (aka food): Délicieux

by Jules 

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Cullen Skink from KK 2013 Calendar

By Ceri 

x

I am lucky and get to spend some time in Scotland every January for an amazing festival they have in Glasgow called Celtic Connections.  I love Scotland.  I love the people, the music, the landscapes, the Whisky and also the food.  Babbity Bowsers is a great pub in Glasgow and is where I was introduced to this Scottish dish by my dear cousin, Gareth.  A hearty, warming treat of a dish in the form of smoked haddock and potatoes in a tasty soup.  Some people add cream to this, but I don't think it needs it.  Best eaten whilst sipping on a fine ale, catching up with family and listening to some cracking tunes

Ingredients

500g undyed, well sourced smoked haddock

2 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks

1 large leek, finely chopped

1 large onion, finely chopped

500 ml milk

100 ml white wine

1 bay leaf

1 lemon

1 tsp mustard powder

salt and pepper

2 garlic gloves, finely chopped

Fresh chives or parsely to garnish

Method

• Place the smoked haddock skin side down in a large pan with 500 ml water, peppercorns and the bay leaf.
• Poach gently for approx 4 mins so the fish is just cooked.
• Remove the skin from the fish, put the skin back in the cooking stock and set aside.
• Flake the fish and place to one side.
• Gently fry the onion, garlic and leeks in a separate pan until soft but not browning. Add the potato cubes and fry for 10 minutes coating the outside in butter.
• Add the fish stock, wine and lemon juice and boil the potatoes for a further 10 minutes until soft. Now add the milk & mustard powder and season.
• I very much prefer my Cullen Skink to have a hearty feel to it and therefore like having chunks of potato and fish to eat. I usually mash the potato lightly in the mixture and then add the fish. If you prefer yours a smoother texture, run it through a blender or liquidiser.
  Warm the mixture through, check seasoning.
• Add chopped parsley or chives and serve with a big piece of chunky bread. Yum!

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Tempura

 Tempura - an enjoyable summer battering

 

Fish and chips is one of the best things when the mood is right, although the batter can cause a food coma to come on rapidly and immediately after consumption. Fritto misto is also one of the best things when in Italy and by the sea. 

When the food coma is not an option [you need to do things/speak to people/move around freely] and you're not leisurely hunting for lunch on the Italian coastline I suggest applying a light tempura batter to anything that you have to hand.

In this instance I had half a courgette, leftover asparagus, quite a few small carrots and two squid in my kitchen.

Firstly, cut your veg and fish to size:

Carrot and courgette batons

Asparagus (whole)

Squid - cut into rings

Get a plate of cornflower to toss the veg in before it goes into your batter.

Make the batter by mixing 80g cornflower, 80g self-raising flour, 210ml sparkling water, 2 tsp rapeseed oil (I used olive oil), 1/4 tsp salt and whisk to get a smooth runny paste. 

You can add in and herbs and spices to flavour the batter – I split it and added lemon rind to half (to go on the squid, asparagus and courgette) and fennel seeds to the other half (for the mountain of carrots). Dip everything in the batter ready to go into the frying pan.

You then want to fry everything in batches so that it cooks evenly and does not stick together. I opted for shallow frying in about 300ml of vegetable oil. Get the oil hot in the pan on a high heat and then turn down to medium.

Piece by piece put the vegetables and squid into the pan without too much excess batter. Soft veg should take about 1 minute and harder veg like carrots 2 minutes. Remove and place on kitchen paper to get rid of unwanted oil.

There are lots of dipping sauces out there but on this occasion I went with lemon wedges and salt as it was supposed to be a quick lunch break!

One happy lunch buddy

 

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Seared Sesame Tuna

By Ceri

There are many good things about living at Keston Road. One of my favourites of the plethora of brilliant things to choose from is the Keston Birthday Dinner. This is a dinner where each of the 3 housemates who are not celebrating turning a whole year older takes a course each and a stunning 3 courser is produced. Since September, we have seen in 4 landmark birthdays as we have all turned 30. Boats have been pushed out, pink fizz has been drunk, heels have been worn, parties have been raucously owned and most importantly some truly delicious food has been eaten. I have said to the girls that when (if) we ever move out of our lovely South East London home, we have to recreate these dinners wherever we are- which means we are in for at least another 30 years of Happy Birthday Feasting... Hooray!

My favourite of my recent contributions has been the seared sesame tuna sashimi I made as a starter last week for Jules who is the most recent of the Keston ladies to mark her 3rd decade of fabulousness. I have totally fallen in love with Japanese food, particularly Sashimi and have been wanting to have a go at this for a while. I had it in my head what I wanted to make, did a little bit of digging around for recipes and came up with the below. Rachie followed suite and prepared a beautiful asian inspired duck and noodle recipe and Charlotte finished off with calvados flavoured rice brulee. It was a total birthday win of a meal.

Tip- You need your tuna to be as fresh as is possible and best to buy from a fishmonger on the day you are planning to make it if at all possible. Raw tuna is completely safe to eat, but the fresher the better for taste and texture. We have the totally wonderful Moxon's on Lordship Lane near us, which has other interesting things to go in for besides the wonderfully fresh produce (attractive fishmongers, who knew?!). http://www.moxonsfreshfish.com/

Seared Sesame Tuna

Serves 2

1/3 cucumber, seeded and cut into strips

4 spring onions, shredded lengthways

A handful of coriander leaves

2 very lean tuna steaks, thick cut, marinated in 2 tbsp soy sauce mixed with 1 tbsp runny honey for 10 mins. You can also buy a larger cut of tuna from the fishmongers. I'd recommend more toward the tail end as it's easier to manage.

2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

Dipping Sauce

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 lime, juiced, lime zest

1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped.

First of all, combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl or jam jar, give it a stir and set to one side. It helps to do this first so the flavours infuse.

1. Sear the tuna in a hot pan for 20 seconds each side then roll in sesame seeds and leave for 5 minutes. I used a griddle pan for this, but a large frying pan will be fine. Get the pan nice and hot before you put the tuna on it.

2. Mix the spring onion, coriander and cucumber and get them ready on a plate.

3. Slice the steak into strips.

4. Serve on a pile of leaves and serve small dishes of of dipping sauce. I also made a quick dressing for the salad and cucumber mix. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp of sesame oil 1 teaspoon of honey, juice and zest of 1 small lime into an empty jam jar. Season, give it a good shake and

put a little over the salads.

5. Serve with slices of fresh lime and a big fat HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULES you wonderful brilliant lady, you. :) xx

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Pork Pies & Potted Things...

Pork Pies & Potted Things by Charlotte

The al fresco dining afternoon/soiree was planned for a beautiful mid July afternoon. Everything was going well, a little too well. To spice things up the rain arrived, I cancelled the borrowing of the bbq and announced grilled food with kitchen/lounge party as the order of the day.

In keeping with my Mark Hix obsession I had two recipes from British Regional Food planned, plus some salads, Matt's homemade burgers with Fergus Henderson ketchup, plus bits and pieces that others were turning up with, such as chilli halloumi, a large Tuscan sausage, Brasilian potato salad, homemade scones and raspberry coulis and Borough red wine. Treats, so many treats.

So, my chosen Mark Hix recipes were Pork Pies and Potted Shrimp. Two absolute classic dishes that Greg Wallace would be thrilled to get his little hands on.

The pies are very simple and tasty, requiring fatty pork shoulder and pastry made with hot water and lard; intriguing, warm and as Rachael will agree, the lard is key!

Here's what Mark says about his Pork Pies -

Makes 6-8

Homemade pork pies are nothing like the ones you buy in the shops. The pastry is easy to make and if you haven't got a mincer at home on your mixing machine, you can just chop the meat up very finely by hand. A helpful butcher might mince the filling for you. All you do is take a large disc of pastry and shape it round the filling into a bulgy-sided pie, then join it to a smaller circle of pastry at the top by pinching round the edge. You could use this recipe to make two big pies, or even one very large one.

I prefer to eat the pies warm rather than cold, as that brings out the flavour and the pastry tends to be crisper. You can also add other seasonings such as anchovy essence, mace or allspice and a bit of sage to suit your taste - it's entirely up to you.

For the filling

1kg boned shoulder of pork, including 20-30 per cent fat

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the hot-water crust pastry

500g plain flour

1tsp salt

175g lard

1 egg, beaten

First prepare the filling: chop some of the best bits of pork into rough 1cm dice and mince or finely chop the rest. Season it well and mix in the diced meat. Take a small teaspoonful of the mixture and fry it to check the seasoning, then adjust it if necessary. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/gas 6.

Then make the pastry: mix the flour and the salt in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Bring 200ml water and the lard to the boil, then stir it into the flour with a wooden spoon to form a smooth dough. Leave the dough covered for about 15 minutes or so, until it can be handled.

Divide the dough into 6-8 equal pieces. Take one of the balls of dough and divide it into two balls, one twice the size of the other. Roll the larger piece on a lightly floured table to about 12-14cm in diameter. Use the smaller piece to make another circle about f half the size for the top. Put some of the filling in the centre of the larger circle, lay the smaller circle on top and raise the sides of the larger one up, then pinch the lid and the top of the sides together with your fingers. If it looks a bit of a mess, you can reshape it, as the pastry is quite pliable. Repeat with the rest of the pastry and filling.

Brush the pies all over with the beaten egg and cook them for 35-40 minutes. If they are colouring too much, cover them with foil and turn the oven down.

Serve them warm or cold, preferably with homemade piccalilli.

Next up Potted Shrimp...

Potting things is of interest to me. Its simple but exciting, several small filled ramekins giving off different aromas gets most peoples attention.

Mr. Hix, of course, did not disappoint - I came across his recipe for potted shrimp with tales of the shrimpers of the Sefton coast. I went to the fishmonger to check out the brown shrimp on offer and found them to be rather pricey. We had a chat and started talking about potting crab, which got me all excited and I ended up leaving with both shrimp and crab.

I potted them both in the same way according to the recipe and actually would have to say I enjoyed the crab rather a lot. The shrimp were good too but do have a slight maggoty look about them which most people managed to point out at some point.

Recipe as follows -

180g unsalted butter

Juice of a lemon

A good pinch of ground mace or nutmeg

Pinch of cayenne pepper

1 small bay leaf

1tsp anchovy essence or paste

210g peeled brown shrimps (or crab meat – I used a mix of brown and white)

Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Melt the butter in a pan, add the lemon juice, mace, cayenne pepper, bay leaf and anchovy essence and simmer on a low heat for 2 minutes to infuse the spices. Remove from the heat and cool the mixture until it is just warm.

Add the shrimps and stir well, then season with salt and freshly ground white pepper. Put the mixture into the fridge and stir every so often. When the butter starts to set, fill 4 ramekins with the mixture or spoon it on to plates. If you aren't serving them that day, return the ramekins to the fridge and cover with clingfilm. Don't serve the shrimps straight from the fridge, as the butter will be too hard to spread nicely on to the toast, and won't taste as good. Serve with hot buttered toast and lemon halves.

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Ginger, Lemon and Garlic Baked Salmon

Ginger, Lemon and Garlic Baked Salmon. By Ceri.

This is a really fresh fish dish, perfect for Spring or Summer and is one of my favourites from my contribution to the Keston Kitchen Calendar for the month of May. I was given this recipe by my previous boss, Jill. My colleague, Sarah and I would poise with our notepads at the ready whilst she dictated recipes to us. The flavours go really well and the end result is succulent fish and tasty spring greens, full of flavour. A lot of people have asked me for this recipe, so I'm happy to be sharing it. It will also work with trout and most other types of fish.

Serves 4

4 well sourced salmon fillets

2 large cloves of garlic, crushed

A thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, grated

300 ml olive oil

Juice of 2 lemons

Baby leeks

Baby corn

4 spring onions chopped

600 g fresh baby leaf spinach

Salt and Pepper

1 large roasting tin

Preheat the oven to 180 / Gas mark 4.

Pour the lemon juice and olive oil into a bowl and stir it together with a fork. Add the garlic and ginger, mix and season with salt and pepper (ideally, make this an hour before baking so the flavours infuse). Put the spinach into the roasting tin. It may look like a lot of leaves, but it cooks down considerably when baked. Press it down into the dish if necessary. Now place the salmon fillets on top of the spinach and add the spring onions, leeks and baby corn around the side.

Finally pour the sauce over the entire dish and bake for 35 minutes. When you remove from the oven, the spinach will have cooked down and the sauce will have doubled due to the water from the veg with all the flavours soaking into the spinach. Serve with roasted sweet potato wedges or mash. You will have some sauce in the bottom of the dish which you can put on the table in a jug for your guests to add extra if they wish.

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Entertaining

Duncan Ackery chats food at the V&A

Lindsay (honorary Keston Kid) and I recently went to hear Duncan Ackery, chef and restauranteur, chat at the V&A Reading Rooms. They mentioned that space would be tight, and it was. There was just enough room for approximately twenty girls plus one token man cram in and listen to Duncan talk about cooking and entertaining. Not only was he talking but he was cutting things up, mixing ingredients, salting vegetables and handing them round for us to taste. Yes we were in for a good night.

Duncan had been to Borough Market that morning to pick up some seasonal items to discuss with us, the whole preface being that when entertaining, it is not just about the food but about having fun with your friends, so choose recipes well, get amazing fresh ingredients, make some stuff ahead and have a good time. In a fairly brief fashion here are some great things to make in spring:

• Mackerel pate served with rhubarb and blood orange compote on top (cook the rhubarb for 3-4 minutes so that it holds its form)
• Mackerel (raw) marinated in honey and mustard - this is good
• Really good mozzarella torn up and served with olive oil, lemon zest and sea salt (fleur de sel is a great garnish salt)
• Goats cheese and beetroot
• Radishes halved and salted
• Roasted fennel - roasted in a pan
• Mussels cooked with smoked french garlic, leeks (pre blanched to take away a little of the strong flavour) and white wine
• Asparagus - blanched for 2 minutes in just water, served with clarified butter (gently warmed butter which separates into two layers - use the top layer only) and salt
• Radicchio salad - you need a fairly strong dressing, like blue cheese or something lemony

Chinese Pork Belly - recipe in full. Duncan is passionate about Asian food, this recipe in particular, and so was everyone else by the time he'd finished speaking:

- Take a piece of pork belly and take off the skin (leave the fat)

- Chop the pork into thumb size pieces

- Boil the pork in water for 3 minutes and drain

- Heat some nut oil in a wok until is is really hot (I used sesame oil)

- Add in a dessert spoon of sugar, let it caramelise (turn to liquid) and then add the pork

- Add about 3 cups of Shaohsing rice wine, soy sauce, 3-4 broken up star anise and a couple of cinnamon sticks

- If you want some liquid then add stock at this point

Serve with rice and seasonal veg - like purple sprouting, cooked separately in a wok with nut oil and garlic. Add a tiny bit of stock and cover to allow the greens to steam briefly.

This is easy and quick and really fresh tasting. I got all the ingredients from my local oriental supermarket, including fortune cookies!

Tips:

• Always have potted shrimp in the freezer - I've never used it so can't say much more. Needless to say I will buy some soon and give it a whirl...
• Chicken thigh fillet is SO much better than breast - it has tons more flavour and is great for frying
• Make use of good local beer, which is great for cooking - Fuller's Honey Dew was recommended

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Salmon En Croute

On sunday afternoon I had a few hours spare and so decided to try my hand at making puff pastry, I will skip the details of the pastry making (or possibly just save it for another time) as you can buy it pre-made to make this recipe.

Once my mission was complete I was eager to create something using the pastry to see if all the effort had been worth while!

I consulted the other Keston ladies and they suggested that I served up a Monday evening dinner of salmon en croute. I have to admit I was not exactly sure what that entailed so I turned to google. After establishing that you could use puff or short crust pastry and any pretty much any combination of flavours to go inside I chose a recipe I found on the channel 4 website that I liked the look of and based my dish on that.

Ingredients (serves 4):

4 X 120g fillets of salmon - these were smaller than the recipe suggested, I used Scottish, sustainably sourced salmon from sainsbury's

125g unsalted butter

25g watercress leaves

Zest and juice of half a lemon

1 chopped tablespoon of fresh tarragon (i couldn't find any tarragon and so used a herb from our garden which was possibly marjoram!)

1 and a half teaspoons of fresh chopped chives

Half a teaspoon of salt

400g chilled puff pastry

Flour for dusting

1 egg, beaten for glazing

Serve with boiled new potatoes and steamed green beans

Method:

-Put the butter, watercress, lemon zest, lemon juice, herbs and salt into a food processor and whizz briefly to make a paste.

-Season the salmon

-Cut the pastry into 4 pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece out into a rectangle of about 17 X 23 cm (I didn't measure this, but just made sure they were plenty big enough to wrap around the fillets). Put each fillet to one side of each rectangle.

-Divide the the herb butter into 4, then put it on top of each fillet. Brush the pastry edges with some egg, then fold the other side of pastry over the butter and salmon. Seal the edges with a fork, and, using a sharp knife, make 3 slits in the top of each parcel.

- Place the parcels side by side on a tray, spaced apart (I didn't use a tray with sides and the buttery stuff dripped all over the oven and my parcels were too close together so they touched and weren't as brown all over as I would have liked).

- Pre-heat the oven to 200 C/Gas 6. Brush the parcels with egg and bake for 20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and just cooked through. Salmon is best when still slightly pink in the centre (mine were cooked through as the fillets were small).

The end result was a success, the pastry puffed! We all agreed the the buttery pastry had a much tastier flavour than the ready to roll stuff. It was time consuming to make but I made a big batch so next time I can just get some from the freezer.

Although not the healthiest of twists to a fish supper it was certainly enjoyed by all and may be the first of many puff pastry based dishes!

Rachael x

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I Heart Italia: Fritto Misto!

by Charlotte

I first discovered fritto misto on the east coast of Italy in 2004 and what a discovery it was. For around eight months after the lovely Liz Jones and I cooked up calamari that we got from the Italian equivalent to Lido, the name of which escapes me right now, in our flat in central Bologna. This was a little different to eating a fresh plate of deep fried calamari, prawns and baby octopus on the shores of Marina di Ravenna but pretty darn good. 

It's now 2010 and I happen to work close to WholeFoods - an treat for any food loving girl. The vegetables are displayed in a rainbow fashion and are intermittently sprayed with a fine mist making them irresistible. And the fish department is my idea of Seaworld - with trays of fresh calamari, prawns and octopus at affordable prices (not like all items in the supermarket!)

So, here's the recipe I cooked up tonight for Jules, a housemate after my own heart when it comes to eating fish and seafood. 

Ingredients:

Clamari

Prawns

Baby Octopus

1 egg

Flour

1 lemon 

salt and pepper

salad

Olive oil

Sunflower oil

Method:

Heat a mixture of olive oil and sunflower oil in a wide based frying pan. Coat the seafood in the egg and then dip in a shallow bowl of flour, seasoned with lemon zest (of 1 lemon), salt and pepper.

When the oil is hot put the the coated seafood in the frying pan, coat in oil and cook for a few minutes, tossing to make sure everything is cooked through.

Serve with salad, ideally rocket and wedges of lemon. Enjoy.

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Kippers & Eggs

Kippers & Eggs on Sunday. By Charlotte x

It’s Sunday morning. We wake at 8.30am feeling spritely which is not always the case.

Suddenly I remember that our kind friends Amy and Tom have given us a packet of kippers the evening before (it was buy one get one free you see).

What follows is a great Sunday morning of kippers and eggs; one poached, one fried – both pretty darn good.

3 reasons why you should eat kippers:

They taste great and are good for you

They go real well with eggs (all styles we think)

They cost less than £1 for 2!

Happy Sunday.

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Mackerel 4 ways

By Charlotte 

If you’re feeling frugal or if you just fancy a fish supper then I advise you continue reading. This post is dedicated to pre cooked packet mackerel which comes at an incredibly reasonable price, is pretty damn tasty and can be delivered in so many ways that we thought we would share 4 of our favourite dishes with y’all.

I would firstly like to mention that great cooks think alike; I came home on Tuesday with 2 packets of mackerel, ready for my evening of fish trials in the Keston Kitchen and after 5 minutes Ceri walked in and pulled out her mackerel (already in the fridge), some prawns and a haddock fillet. So, as I said, great cooks think alike. That evening 3 of the four dishes below were developed.

Dish number 1: Freestyle Mackerel Pate

This recipe was brought to my attention by our keen guest chef Miss Katie Green who often whips up this simple dish while in her Bristol kitchen. I remembered the ingredients, Googled the recipe and due to a shortage of lemons I improvised. The results were astounding, well, pretty good.

300g cooked mackerel fillets

150g Philadelphia cheese

1 tablespoon horseradish sauce

A splash of white wine

2 tablespoons capers

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Blend with a hand whisk and put into ramekins and chill.

Dish number 2: Ceri’s Mackerel Fish Pie

I was trying to watch Ceri as she made this for our dinner – which was fantastic I might add. Main comments to note, ‘lucky Rachael isn’t here as there clearly is not enough’.

1 packet of mackerel fillets (approx 180g)

1 haddock fillet, steamed

2 handfuls of prawns

50g peas

4 eggs, soft boiled

1 pint of milk

Cornflour

4 large potatoes, peeled and diced

1 onion finely diced

Wholegrain mustard

2 tablespoons capers

Cheddar cheese

Butter

Olive oil

Mixed herbs

Boil the potatoes and mash with butter, milk and the mustard. Soft boil the eggs, then peel and quarter.

Cook the onions in a saucepan in some butter and oil, throw in the fish and add the milk. Bring to the boil and thicken with some cornflour if necessary. Add in the peas and cook for a few minutes. Grate in some cheddar cheese, throw in the capers, mixed herbs and season. Transfer the filling to a casserole dish and place the quartered eggs on top.

Cover with the mashed potato and grate cheese on the top.

Bake for about 20 minutes so that it is hot through and golden.

Dish number 3: Mackerel Fishcakes

Over the last 18 months I have developed a love for fishcakes. Making them with cooked mackerel seemed like a genius plan; easy, quick, impressive.

1 packet of cooked mackerel (approx 180g)

1 small onion, finely diced

3 large potatoes, peeled and diced

Butter

Milk

Mustard (any)

1 egg

Breadcrumbs

Fresh dill (or other herbs)

Saute the onions in olive oil. Cook the potatoes and mash with butter and milk, then put in the fridge to chill. Flake the mackerel into a mixing bowl and add in the onions, mash, mustard, egg and herbs. Season with salt and pepper and put back in the fridge to chill. When cold enough mould into fishcakes, roll them in breadcrumbs and put on a plate (ready for further chilling-this makes them much easier to handle and cook). When you want to cook then gently fry them in a pan, turning once. They will need roughly 8 minutes on each side until they are hot through and golden.

Dish number 4: Summer Mackerel Salad

If you like mackerel (presumably you do if you have read this far), beetroot, green leaves, soft boiled eggs, green beans, cherry tomatoes, new potatoes, capers and cucumber then this is the one for you.

Mix together all the above ingredients and anything else you might fancy, such as broad beans, artichoke, anchovies, celery, fennel, the list goes on. Make a dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar (1:2 oil to vinegar) mixed with some mustard and honey and enjoy!

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