We all know we need to eat more oily fish but finding interesting recipes that pair well with the strong flavours can be difficult. Mackerel pairs well with all sorts of sharp flavours – bramley apple sauce, horseradish, gooseberry compote to name a few – but it’s particularly delicious paired with spicy lime pickle in this simple recipe. Try it.

Ingredients

• 4 fresh mackerel
• 1 large cauliflower
• 2 courgettes
• tablespoon Patak’s lime pickle
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon ghee
• juice of 1 lime
• sea salt
• watercress
• cucumber
• tomato
• natural yoghurt

Method

1. Get your fishmonger to gut and fillet some fresh mackerel for you (or buy frozen fillets from  your supermarket). You’ll need 2 fillets per person, or one whole mackerel.
2. Preheat your oven to 200’C.
3. Dry the fillets and place them on oiled tin foil on your grill pan or in a roasting dish. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Chop the cauliflower and courgette into medium sized chunks and place in a heavy roasting dish with the lime pickle, coconut oil and ghee, stirring to combine the ingredients.
5. Place on the top shelf of the oven for 10-15 minutes until you can see the edges starting to caramelise. Then move the vegetables to the middle shelf and slide the mackerel into the top shelf.
6. Cooking time for these will depend on whether or not your are cooking fillets or whole fish: roughly 7-10 minutes for fillets, more like 15 minutes for whole fish. The skin should start to sizzle a little and the fish should turn opaque.
7. When the mackerel is cooked to your taste, sprinkle it with sea salt and lime juice and serve with the lime pickle vegetables, a dollop of natural yoghurt, and with a side salad of cucumber and tomato.