Serves: 4-6
Cooks in: 15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
1kg cherry toms
1kg plum toms
1 chopped shallot
50g peeled cucumber chopped
1 clove of garlic crushed
5 basil leaves
Pinch of salt and sugar
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
4 whole mackerel, butterflied
½ honeymoon melon
½ cucumber
15ml extra virgin olive oil
8g white wine vinegar
Process
Pulse all the ingredients in a blender till you reach a coarse mixture.
Line a sieve set over a bowl with a clean cloth or a piece of muslin and let the mix quietly dripthough in the fridge overnight.
Now to prepare the mackerel ready for grilling. Ask your fishmonger to butterfly the fish for youthen once home set it on a wire rack on top of a plate uncovered in your fridge for 2 hours before you decide to cook it. In this time the skin will dry enough for it to render it beautifully crisp when you set it over the coals.
Peel the cucumber and the melon then create long ribbons with both. For the dressing mix the oil, vinegar (we opt for a sweet and bright chardonnay vinegar at the restaurant) and salt and set aside. The ribbons of cucumber and melon will be dressed just before serving.
Once the coals are white hot, if using a grill, lay the fish down and cook skin side down only until you’ve achieved a crisp texture and the flesh is just warm. Take it off and rest it flesh side down in a warm place to rest.
To serve, you can either slice the fish or lay into the bowl whole. Dress the salad and drape overthe fish. Pour the tomato essence into the bowl and enjoy immediately.
