Mark Hix is a celebrated restaurateur with locations across London, as well as an Oyster & Fish House in Lyme Regis. Here, he talks enthusiastically about mackerel and tomatoes and provides us with 2 recipes featuring these favoured ingredients...
“Mackerel and tomatoes remind me of my early childhood. I used to catch mackerel when I was a kid in Dorset growing up by the seaside. My grandmother would butterfly the fish but I like the natural look of the whole thing. She was a proper home cook, there were certain things for certain days of the week, and I’d come to hers to have stuffed lambs’ hearts, things like that.
We just had a mackerel festival in Lyme Regis, where I’ve been a lot recently and did some fishing. I caught a nice big Pollock and lots of mackerel – also had a few close misses on sea bass.
Mackerel doesn't need an awful lot doing to it. Simply pan fry and souse any leftovers in vinegar to snack on during the week with some brown bread and butter. The recipe here would also transfer well to a summer barbeque.
My grandfather grew tomatoes – a simple, reliable variety called Moneymakers. He used to grow lovely bumper crops and I would eat tomatoes with vinegar for supper with a chunk of bread. If you have a good selection of tasty tomatoes, you really don't need to do anything too clever to them. Just a few spring onions and some torn lovage leaves is enough to turn them into a simple but special salad. Like basil, lovage has a way of working itself into dishes to give them a real lift, but it can be overpowering and needs to be used in moderation. If you can't get hold of lovage (which is available in nurseries and specialist greengrocers) then celery leaves would also do the job.”
"My grandfather grew tomatoes – a simple, reliable variety called Moneymakers"
Grilled mackerel with cucumber and samphire salad
Serves 4
Ingredients:
4 medium sized mackerel, gutted
Vegetable or corn oil for brushing
A handful of samphire with any woody ends removed
1/2 a cucumber, halved lengthways and the seeds scooped out with a teaspoon
1/2 tbs rapeseed oil
1/2 tbs cider vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the cucumber into thin slices on the angle. Bring a pan of water to the boil and blanch the cucumber and samphire for 10 seconds then drain and refresh under the cold tap and pat off any excess water with some kitchen paper. Mix the cucumber and samphire in a bowl with the rapeseed oil and cider vinegar and season to taste and leave to marinade whilst the mackerel is cooking.
Heat a ribbed griddle pan or barbeque, season and lightly oil the mackerel and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side. Transfer to serving plates and arrange the samphire and cucumber salad on the side
Tomato and lovage salad
Serves 4
Ingredients:
300-400g mixed tomatoes
2 shallots, finely sliced
A few sprigs of lovage (or celery leaves)
A little malt vinegar, to drizzle
2tbsp extra virgin rapeseed oil, or to taste
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the tomatoes into chunks, leaving the small ones whole. Arrange on a serving plates with the sliced shallots, tear the lovage leaves over them. Drizzle with vinegar and oil as desired, and season to taste.
Mark Hix is a celebrated restaurateur with locations across London, as well as an Oyster & Fish House in Lyme Regis. For these recipes he used Julian Temperley's West Country cider vinegar, and a Portuguese olive oil featuring a label by Tracey Emin, which is also used at his East London meat restaurant, Tramshed. Hix cooked for us in the test kitchen upstairs from Tramshed, which also houses his kitchen library.
Text by Ananda Pellerin
Ananda Pellerin is a London-based writer and regular contributor to anothermag.com.
