Grilled Red Masala Mackerel

Being the free range poultry and organically farmed salmon kinda girl that I am, I was simply over the moon when HFW declared that it was 'OK' for us to eat mackerel again. It is, quite simply, my favourite fish. Smoked or fresh, grilled or fried, I love the stuff, although I gather that a lot of people don't, and I guess that's because it has a very strong flavour. However, some people moan about mackerel being too fishy, but as it tastes unlike any other fish I have tasted I don't really get this. 

Anyhoo, I like it and it's pretty cheap which means that we eat it quite regularly. Today I picked up two decent sized fish (and had them filleted) from Anthony Andrews at Castle Market Sheffield for about £3.30. Bargain.

I normally bake mackerel whole, with a few herbs and slices of lemon stuck in the cavity, or I pan-fry fillets and serve them with a salad or some rhubarb. But today I wanted something different and I Googled Indian mackerel recipes with the hope that something would catch me eye... and it did!

The only change I made to this recipe was that I used fillets rather than whole fish as I wanted to keep tea light and we just had a fillet rather than a whole fish each. Oh, and I used dark muscovado sugar instead of jaggery. I served the fish up with a simple salad of iceberg lettuce and finely sliced red onion, cucumber and tomato and I'm pleased to report that it was delicious.

The masala paste was sufficiently hot and it worked well with the strongly flavoured mackerel. The simple salad was a good coolant when required! I think I'll be doing this one again - and I'm glad that I now have an easy recipe for a hot paste that I can use with other fish as well as chicken. I think it'd make a good dip too.

Are you a mackerel fan? And, if not, why not?!