Went fishing yesterday and although we didn’t catch anything, other fishermen were taking their limit in Spanish Mackerel and giving them away to our group (We weren’t trying for Mackerel ourselves, just some bottom fishing.). All told, we came home with 27 Mackerel that we cleaned and split three ways.
I had never eaten Mackerel until yesterday and was admittedly at a loss as how to prepare it. So, I took a whole cleaned Mackerel and grilled it in a in foil wrap with lemon slices, lemon juice, butter, some sliced onions, and salt and pepper. It turned out to be surprisingly delicious prepared this way, but I’m wondering what I can do with the rest of several pounds of fillets.
So tell me, what are some good recipes for this, the exclamatory fish? I understand that Mackerel is what they call an oily fish, and is a little bit strong in flavor, and boney (It reminded me a little bit of sardines.) It’s called Spanish Mackerel… do the Spaniards have any famous preperations for the Mackerel?
Also, why is the expression “Holy Mackerel!”? Why not “Holy Tuna!” or “Holy Cod!”? Where did this expression come from?
I like to stuff the fish with lots of rosemary, bake it with a little butter and then break it up onto a thick slice of liberally-buttered wholemeal bread and eat it with hot horseradish sauce. This is probably my favourite meal.
I like it as simple as simple gets. Slice off whole filets from each side, but don’t skin them. Slash the flesh a couple of times through the skin. Sprinkle the skin sides with coarse salt and let them sit for an hour. Then broil the filets, skin side up, under a medium hot broiler until the skin bubbles and blackens the flesh is cooked. Serve it with a wedge or two of lemon. In Japan, this is called “shio-yaki” (salt-broiled) and if you have super-fresh mackerel, it’s hard to beat.
Wow, that recipe sounds really good, Mangetout. It also sounds very sexy for some reason… simple and sexy.
I have no idea why it seems so sexy, unless mackerel also has some aphrodisiacal quality…Are you a female? …I really hope that you are a woman, or else this sounds really stupid.
No and no. It’s the same as just normally salting food prior to cooking, but when you do it an hour before, it gives it a chance to draw juice up from the flesh. The juice then mixes itself with the salt and by the time you put it in the broiler, the skin is dotted with big drops of salted juice. This dries and crystallizes under the heat of the broiler to appetizingly crisp the skin.
Mackerel freezes quite well - if you think you’re going to end up freezing some, do it now, rather than a few days from now, especially as it’s already filleted. You could freeze it dishes ready-seasoned or ready-prepared for cooking, so when you want it, all you need to do is thaw in the fridge overnight and bung it in the oven.
Thanks Teela, I’m gonna thaw some out tomorrow and try it, It sounds naked and delicious… I’ll go with a very hot grill (Don’t have a broiler at the moment).
That Holy Mackerel thing is kind of bugging me. It’s a strange symbolically charged situation…You see, we got out of the car yesterday at the pier and an evangelist handed us some Christian Tracts. Then two different Fisherman gave us their catch and I couldn’t help but think of the fishes and loaves thing… Why is Mackeral holy?
Yes - it’s an oily fish - very good for you in terms of Omega 3 and fatty thingybobs. Not quite so good for you in terms of heavy metals and so forth - I think the recommendation is only to eat it a couple of times a week on average.
Many of the online sites talk about “King Mackerel” being a problem with heavy metals. Is there a difference between the average peon mackerels that most folk catch, and “King” mackerels? And, if your fish don’t listen to AC/DC, does that count?