This dish came to my rescue after a glorious but exhausting day on the Lake District fells: it was imperative that supper was quick and easy, or the cook would be asleep before the meal was on the table, but I also didn’t want to compromise on my aim to get all of us eating more fish, especially oily fish.

The available choice of fish was mackerel, mackerel or mackerel, so I bought mackerel – with some trepidation, given that one member of the party had known for years (without trying it) that she didn’t like mackerel…  Since my version of the dish was adapted from a recipe from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s River Cottage Fish that I found on my phone as I waited at the fish counter, and since she and I are both HFW enthusiasts, I thought I might get away with it.

I did, and the result is a triumph!  It is just about the quickest possible recipe on earth.  With four minutes cooking time and barely more of preparation, it is real outdoor-living food, and yet it would not disgrace The Savoy (should The Savoy’s chefs happen to be reading).

Mackerel is also pretty cheap as fish go (and mostly they go relatively expensive).  If frozen are all you can get then they are generally perfectly adequate, especially if the diners are hungry and you choose one of the more strongly flavoured herbs.  Best of all, of course, if you can get them, would be freshly-caught mackerel, still gleaming and a silver-blue polished steel colour.  Worst of all are tired and grey “fresh” mackerel suffering a slow twilight on the supermarket fish counter.

But don’t automatically dismiss the supermarket fish counter.  It can be very good, as it was the first time I made this recipe, worn out and in need of a quick meal, when the mackerel came from Booths supermarket in Windermere and were superb.

To keep with the “easiest supper in the world” theme, use a salad bag as a side salad, and buy a nice loaf to mop up the juices.  If you are making it with more time or at home, you can branch out a bit – small boiled new potatoes in the summer, super-simple potato wedges in the winter.

The essence of it –

Sauté briefly crushed or sliced garlic, and fresh thyme or any other herb still on the stalks, then lay the mackerel on top, skin side up in a single layer, pressing down well into the garlic.  After about two minutes on a high heat, turn them over and cook for another couple of minutes on a lower heat.  Serve skin side down – the garlic will have formed a golden-brown crust on top of the fillet.  Squeeze a dash of lemon juice over each fillet, and serve with the juices spooned over.

Luxury!  At little cost and with little work!

Happy quick and easy cooking and – bon appétit!

Anna

And now in more detail –

You need:

Mackerel:  one or two mackerel fillets per person, depending on how hungry your crew are.  Unless the mackerel are very large, which they quite often are, expect most adults to want two.

Herbs:  a few fresh sprigs per person is best, and you cook them on their stalks so there is no fiddling about trying to strip the leaves off.  If fresh aren’t aren’t available I wouldn’t hesitate to use dried in a holiday meal, though it will give you a different (but still very good) dish.  If you’re using the recipe for a “Come over and have a quick and simple supper in the kitchen”, and then you really do need fresh.  Thyme is my preference, but all the similar herbs work well – rosemary, oregano, marjoram.  Even sage might, as long as you don’t use too much.  HFW uses bay leaves roughly torn, but if they were dried you would have to be careful that your diners didn’t eat them:  eating dried bay leaves is dangerous as they can be sharp and cause internal injury – always remove them.

Garlic:  a couple of cloves of garlic per person – less if some of your diners are uncertain about garlic.  (Click here for a tip on how to make the fiddly peeling chore quick and easy)

Oil or butter:  olive or other oil or butter, for frying

One fresh lemon per 4 diners If don’t have much packing space, a lemon reamer is better worth its space than a lemon squeezer – smaller, and less liable to be damaged.  If packing is too constrained even for a lemon reamer (and for a tenting back packer it will be), or you discover too late that you haven’t got one, you’ll get enough lemon juice for this recipe if the strongest member of the party squeezes it by hand.  If you can’t get fresh, a squirt from a bottle will do.

Salt and pepper

What to do –

Lightly season the fish both sides with salt and pepper.  Peel the garlic, and crush if possible but otherwise or slice into whatever thickness takes your fancy.

Heat the oil in a frying pan, toss in the herbs – still attached to their stalks – and the garlic. Hot, but not too hot – this shouldn’t be a burnt offering.  Stir for a minute or so, and then place the mackerel skin side up in a single layer across the pan, on top of the herbs and garlic.  Press the fish well down onto the garlic and herbs with a spoon or fork – this helps to make the garlic stick to the fish and form the golden crust.  If you can’t get all the fillets in at one time, this dish cooks so quickly that it hardly matters.  A repeat performance takes no time, but share out the garlic and herbs fairly between each go and cook them freshly for each batch.  If you pan gets too many crispy burnt bits, you may want to wipe it around between goes.

Cook the fillets for about two minutes then turn over, lower the heat slightly and let them cook for a couple of minutes more, until the flesh is turning white from its previous pearly opalescence.  If you like to eat crispy fish skin then leave the heat high for the second stage, or even increase it, but in that case reduce the time slightly.

Take the pan off the heat and squeeze the equivalent of the juice of a quarter of a lemon over the top side of each person’s fillet.  If you’re having to use a bottle then a couple of quick shakes, or a single good-sized squirt is enough.  Until you are familiar with the recipe, use too little lemon juice rather than two much – your crew can always add more on the plate, but they can’t take it away!

Serve, giving each fillet its share of the juices, the herbs and the garlic.

Enjoy!  Do let me know how you got on, and please share all your good mackerel recipes with me –it’s sustainably fished, it’s highly nutritious, it’s cheap, and I love it!  What more could you ask?

Bon appétit!

Anna