- Serves 4
- Ingredients
- 4 medium sized mackerel fillets, pin boned
- 4 slices of Parma ham cut into 1 inch strips
- 2 punnets of living pea shoots
- Selection of salad herbs (we often use red mustard frills, ruby chard, red cabbage, nasturtium leaves and nasturtium flower petals from Ross Geach)
- 1 large cucumber
- Mackerel pickle
- 50g white wine vinegar
- 250g extra virgin olive oil
- 25ml rice wine vinegar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- Fine salt
- Cucumber pickle
- 100ml white wine vinegar
- 100g caster sugar
- 700ml water
- 50 ml extra virgin olive oil
- Fine salt to taste
- Mustard mayonnaise
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ tsp sherry vinegar
- 1 tbsp whole grain mustard
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 200ml light rapeseed oil
- Celeriac remoulade
- 1 small celeriac
- 1 lemon juice
- 1 tsp fine salt
- Sherry vinegar, fine salt, ground white pepper, Dijon and wholegrain mustard to taste
Torched Cornish mackerel celeriac remoulade ~ parma ham ~ cucumber by Paul Ainsworth
Paul Ainsworth
4th January 2014
Torched Cornish mackerel celeriac remoulade ~ parma ham ~ cucumber by Paul Ainsworth
Torched Cornish mackerel celeriac remoulade ~ parma ham ~ cucumber by Paul Ainsworth (photogrpahy by David Griffen)
Ingredients
Method
Celeriac remoulade
Peel the celeriac then turn it on a vertical Japanese mandolin with a fine blade or julienne by hand. Then mix well with the salt and half the lemon juice for 1-2 hours. Squeeze the celeriac in a clean cloth, then in a clean bowl bind with the mayonnaise and finish with the mustards, lemon juice, sherry vinegar. Season to taste. Keep covered until it’s needed so it doesn’t dry out.
Cucumber pickle
Bring all the ingredients to the boil, check seasoning and cool.
Mackerel pickle
Emulsify all the ingredients together and check for seasoning.
Pickled cucumber
Top, tail and cut the cucumber in half. Then slice it on a Japanese mandolin into 2mm thin strips. Discard any strips with seeds, then trim the strips so they are one inch long. Leave to marinade in the cold cucumber pickle for around 10 minutes so they take on the light pickled flavour. Remove from the pickle and use within 10 minutes or they will lose their colour.
Pickling the mackerel
Season the mackerel fillets with fine salt on both sides. Coat with the emulsified pickle and gently warm on the bottom of a low grill or oven skin side up and turn after a couple of minutes.
To plate up
Place a large table spoon of the remoulade onto four plates in a rectangle just a little smaller than the fillets of mackerel. Then lay the cucumber ribbons onto a cloth to remove excess pickle and season with sea salt. Wrap loosely around your finger to create a neat circle, then place it around the remoulade in five points. Arrange the Parma ham in between the cucumber, drape the pea shoots neatly over the cucumber and Parma ham, then neatly put the other leaves and flowers onto the pea shoots to create a frame for the mackerel.
When the fish is gently warmed but still pink, blow torch the skin until beautifully charred and crisp. Place the mackerel on top of the remoulade being careful not to crush the salad. Finally, dress with a little of the pickling liquor.
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