Distant Family, Filleting a Fish, and Mackerel Tartare

Many may scoff at how regimented weekly diets were in the past for many families, but I would wager they had a greater overall variety in them than many of our modern eating patterns. My own mum always cooked fish on a Friday and it is a tradition that, as I have gotten older, I have increasingly tried to adhere to. It makes me feel, oddly, somehow closer to home whilst living abroad. In addition, it is a good way to get some fish and seafood into my diet, which can be hard to do on a regular basis.

My observance of the habit mainly began about 5 years ago when I moved abroad to Sweden. Before that, even though I lived quite far away from her in the UK (in Manchester and before that Glasgow, she lives in Hull) it wasn’t something I usually followed.

So I think it was probably something about being abroad, rather than far away. Perhaps something silly about being over a body of water, or just the knowledge of how much more complex, time consuming and expensive a trip home would be. It is something small that makes me feel like I am still partaking in some little maternal ritual.

Part of it too, I know, is likely down to guilt about moving abroad and not going home often enough. The lingering thought that never goes away deep in my mind, “what if something happened to her and I might not get home in time?”

Obviously eating a bit of fish doesn’t change any of that guilt, but it does feel in some inexplicable way important to spend some time thinking about her and our old habits. As if carrying out the family rites of passage in each others absence is a sign of recognition.

It does present a bit of a problem though. In Belgium fish and seafood is considerably more expensive than in the UK (and even Sweden). In addition, the choice of fish is also smaller. Most supermarkets will only stock salmon, tuna, mussels, cod or other forms of white fish. As an example, two fillets of salmon would almost certainly be well above 10 euros. This creates a predicament of how I can do this without unjustifiably sploshing the euros on things I can’t in all honesty afford.

Often I would choose to use tinned or frozen fish and try to find a way to be resourceful. This week I decided to travel a bit further than normal to a supermarket I knew would have fresh mackerel. It is something which is still affordable here, if much more expensive than the UK, and so I can justify it without feeling like I am wasting money. I was able to get 6 fillets (it sounds like a lot but it isn’t for this dish) for 7 euros. It also happens to be my favorite fish. The only reason I don’t eat it a lot is that it spoils a lot faster than other fish.

So. The dish. I chose to follow, and slightly adapt, a recipe for Mackerel tartare from a semi Venetian cook book Polpo by Russel Norman. This is one of my favourite cookbooks that I cannot recommend enough. All of the recipes are typically only a handful of ingredients and steps, but still quite exciting.

I originally bought the book for my ex boyfriends mum. Then 15 years later when we broke up, I immediately went out and bought my own copy, seeing as I would no longer have access to it.

Ingredients

• 6 fillets of mackerel (more or less it isn’t important but a fair few. Perhaps a couple extra if you’ve never skinned them before as you may mess it up the first time)
• 1 cucumber
• Handful of gherkins and capers
• Handful of chopped parsley
• juice of half a lemon (taste it though you may need more)
• Salt and Pepper
• Sugar
• 1/4 of a large red onion (or some spring onions) finely chopped
• Olive oil

I made some slight changes here which should be noted. The original recipe did not include onion and was only 4 fillets and half a cucumber. Feel free to go back to the original.

Method

Before doing anything you will need to salt and cure the cucumber. This is an annoying task, but it is necessary. Not doing so will lead to a lot of excess water in the dish, as the salt draws the water out from the cucumber in the final meal. This may not be an issue you if you eat it straight away, but if you place it in the fridge for the flavours to steep, it will end up being a very wet affair, and no one is a fan of cold, wet, fish

The original recipe said to peel the cucumber, but I chose to leave it on. It adds a nice crunch and the vibrant green colour is a pleasant addition to what would otherwise be a grey mound on a plate.

Slice the cucumber in half and then down each of the 4 sides leaving the inner core with the seeds in a rectangle. You can then discard these, eat them as a snack with salt and mustard whilst cooking, or leave them to use for something else later. You then need to chop the cucumber into small cubes. Once you have done this place the cucumber in a sieve or colander over a bowl and throw few pinches of salt and sugar over them. Mix it all together and then leave for an hour.

Following this you will need to prepare the fish, which will involve differing levels of kitchen labour depending on what you have purchased. I often buy a whole fish because, like fish on a Friday and my mother, filleting a fish reminds me of my dad (it is also cheaper). He was a also butcher and a lot of my memories of him and my childhood are of being shown how to cut up various animals and fish. Perhaps it is a little gruesome, but I used to sit in his butchery room on the farm and play with a child’s tool set, whilst he sawed, chopped, plucked and butchered various recently descended creatures. He too learnt how to fillet a fish from his father, who was, actually, a fisherman. Though sadly I never met him. He died before I was born.

A mackerel is a good fish to start with filleting. Firstly if it isn’t already gutted, make an incision below the head and down to the tail, whilst holding the fish over the sink. Then, whilst running cold water into the cavity, pull out all of the guts and insides. You will unfortunately have to feel the horrible snaps in the tissue as you pull them out. It’s unpleasant but I’ve grown to like it in a sadistic kind of way.

Now you need to make a small incision below the gills from the spine to the bottom of the head. Then on one side of the spine from your prior incision all the way down to the tail. This is now the trickiest bit. Press your hand on the fish and slowly run the knife down towards the head slowly tracking just above the bones. You will notice differences in tension depending on how close to the bones you go. The further away the softer it will be, however you will waste a lot of good flesh. The closer to the bone you go the harder the tension you will feel and the more jagged bones you will cut into the flesh. You will, sadly, need to practice slowly to identify the correct tension. But there really is no other way than trial and error.

At this point if any bones are in the fillet, pick them out with tweasers. Once you have done this, make an incision between the flesh and the skin at what would have been the tail end of the fish. Then slowly slide the knife between the skin and the flesh. You will need to identify the correct tension here through trial and error also. The more you do it, the faster you will become. Keep the skins, however. You can fry them to make a tasty and salty starter with beers. Chop the flesh finely and set aside.

Once the cucumber has sat for an hour wash the salt and sugar off and dry with some kitchen paper. Place in a bowl and mix with the mackerel. Next add the capers, gherkins, onions and parsley. Then add the lemon juice, olive oil salt and pepper. Make sure to taste as you go as you really don’t want to over do it with the lemon or salt.

Finally, set aside in the fridge for 30 mins to 1 hour or so to let the flavour steep a bit. Serve it by placing a small metal biscuit cutter on a plate and filling it with the tartare and then remove the cutter. I had it with a some pizettas as a main and another dish of roasted red peppers, tomatoes and anchovies. But it is nice with some kind of horseradish and even just some bread.

It is a good recipe that involves two elements which mean a lot to me in terms of my family and being so far away from them. It is also cheap and quite easy. You can obviously just buy them filleted and skinned, but it can be cheaper not to, hence I included the description.

Let me know if you try this.

Sam