This dish makes for a lovely light dinner on a warm sunny evening! Tasty, zingy, smokey and piquante it just about hits all the tastebuds smack in the mouth!
Ingredients (serves 2):
Two smoked Mackerel fillets (I have used plain here, but no reason why you couldn’t use peppered Mackerel for an added bit of a kick!)
1/2 Romaine Lettuce
2 large / 3 medium / 4 small cooked beetroots
1 red chilli
A small handful of fresh mint
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 small / 1/2 large red onion
3tbsp of Elderflower vinegar (you can make your own, I will post a receipe to Flavour.ie later). You could also use rice wine or white wine vinegar vinegar
125g of Halloumi sliced into 4 slices.
New potatoes and Rye bread to serve.
Method:
Firstly prepare the red onion by peeling, chopping in half and thinly slicing both half moons of onion.
Place in a bowl and cover with a couple of generous pinches of sea salt and the vinegar.
Mix well ensuring the onion is covered and set aside, stirring every few minutes to ensure all the onion is emersed for a spell in the pickling liquid.
Boil up some water and place in a pan with salted water. Spear the potatoes all over so the heat penetrates and they cook quicker. Pop in the pan when the water is boiling and cook until done (apx 15 – 20 mins).
Prepare the cooked beetroot by cutting into cubes. Place in a bowl and add the chilli, mint, lemon zest and juice, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a slug of extra virgin olive oil.
Mix together well to combine and set aside.
Prepare the Mackerel by splitting each of the smoked fillets in half. Keep the skin on during cooking so the mackerel holds it shape; remove afterwards.
Put a small pan on to a medium heat. Gently place the mackerel in the pan to warm through. No need to add oil to the pan.
Meanwhile, slice the halloumi and season it with pepper only.
Take the mackerel out of the pan and set aside, and place the halloumi in the pan to warm through also, turning once.
Slice the romaine lettuce up and share between the two plates.
Drop the beetroot and chilli mix over the lettuce.
Take the skin off of the back of the mackerel and arrange on the plate.
Once warmed, serve up two slices of halloumi on each plate and top off with some of the (drained) pickled onion.
Serve up with the freshly cooked new potatoes, some slices of fresh Rye bread and some Glenilen Country Butter for both.
A final grinding of fresh black pepper over the whole dish and
….Enjoy!
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