Recipe-less Grilled Mackerel and Tomato Herb Salad
If i’m being truly honest, I’m not that big a fan of barbecues. I think a lot of it stems from the fact that most people just make it a complete meat-fest. Any type of meat, chucked onto the bbq with little to no care. I find it such a bizarre event, when the males of the family (older generation… sorry for outing you) that spend no time in the kitchen, feel audacious enough to cook on live fire, does it pay off….? Live fire cooking is not easy. The #1 rule you learn in culinary school is to control the fire, and doing that on a stove… easy. On a charcoal bbq? It’s another skillset.
Anyways, rant over - I have a perfect non red meat alternative for you to chuck on the barbecue. It’s elegant, easy and delicious. Fish is the only meat I’ve learned to cook over coals, because it doesn’t need roaring heat and its really easy to tell once its cooked.
I use the same kind of thinking when cooking fish - if it turn over easily, without sticking to the grates, it’s cooked on that side, if not, leave it for a little longer. You can smell the difference in raw and cooked fish, and the easiest way, open the cavity and theeh flesh will go from flexible to flakey.
Serves:4-6
Ingredients
2 Whole Mackerels, gutted and cleaned
450g Mixed Tomatoes, chopped into bite sized chunks
Mixed Soft Herbs (I used dill and parsley)
Lettuce of your choice (I used radicchio)
Dressing:
Pomegranate Molasses
White Wine Vinegar
Salt
Honey
1 Red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
Olive Oil
Method:
Add pomegranate molasses and vinegar into a jar. Season to taste with salt and honey then drop the red onion in. Stir together and set aside until it turns into a pickle. Then shake olive oil into the pickled onions until a dressing forms.
Salt the mackerel inside and out and cook on the bbq until cooked through (my bbq was around 250°C. this doesn’t take very long, 8-10 mins, flipping half way through.
Toss the herbs, lettuce and tomatoes through the dressing and serve with the grilled fish.