Sasha Ziverts, Head Chef of Wright Brothers Soho, shares a delicious recipe for smoked mackerel with beetroot and garlic aioli, perfect to try this week for National Seafood Week!
Ingredients (serves 4)
4 large mackerel fillets
700g new potatoes
100g Harissa paste
1kg large red beetroots
200ml Japanese sushi vinegar
50g capers deep fried
100g garlic aioli
2 bunches spring onions
2 lemons zested
1 bunch of parsley
In the larder:
Sea salt
Pepper
Vinegar
Sugar
Olive oil
Method
Buy the freshest mackerel that you can find. At Wright Brothers we have a daily shipment from our Cornish suppliers. If you are unconfident with filleting you can ask your local fishmonger to do it for you, but I think it is all part of the fun of cooking to get hands a little dirty.
Begin by making a paste from the harissa paste and the olive oil, and coat the baby potatoes. Roast the potatoes in a high temperature oven till just cooked through.
Next bring the vinegar, sugar and water to the boil. Cook the beetroot in the boiling syrup with the skin on. When cooked peel the outer skin whilst still hot, grate and season with Japanese vinegar.
Then deep fry a handful of capers, make a roasted garlic aioli, and prepare the salad ingredients. Light the BBQ, and you are ready for plating.
To make the harissa potato base, add the warm harissa potatoes, spring onions, chopped parsley, lemon zest, sea salt and a huge spoonful of garlic aioli. Mix well to break up the potatoes.
Barbeque the mackerel skin side down, until crispy. Remove from the heat, cover and let the fish finish cooking by residual heat transfer. Season with fresh cracked pepper and sea salt.
To plate spoon some of the harissa potato mix onto the middle of the plate, lay the cooked fish on top. Add a heaped spoon of the beetroot pickle, sprinkle deep fried capers and fresh parsley. Serve whilst hot.
The Wright Brothers supply over 150 restaurants across the UK with sustainable oysters and seafood. Owned by brothers-in-law Ben Wright and Robin Hancock, Wright Brothers is comprised of four London based restaurants, the Oyster & Porter House in Borough Market, Soho Oyster House, South Kensington and Spitalfields.
