- Serves 4
- Ingredients
- 4 medium sized mackerel fillets, pin boned
- 4 slices of Parma ham cut into 1 inch strips
- 2 punnets of living pea shoots
- Selection of salad herbs (we often use red mustard frills, ruby chard, red cabbage, nasturtium leaves and nasturtium flower petals from Ross Geach)
- 1 large cucumber
- Mackerel pickle
- 50g white wine vinegar
- 250g extra virgin olive oil
- 25ml rice wine vinegar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- Fine salt
- Cucumber pickle
- 100ml white wine vinegar
- 100g caster sugar
- 700ml water
- 50 ml extra virgin olive oil
- Fine salt to taste
- Mustard mayonnaise
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ tsp sherry vinegar
- 1 tbsp whole grain mustard
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 200ml light rapeseed oil
- Celeriac remoulade
- 1 small celeriac
- 1 lemon juice
- 1 tsp fine salt
- Sherry vinegar, fine salt, ground white pepper, Dijon and wholegrain mustard to taste
Torched Cornish mackerel celeriac remoulade ~ parma ham ~ cucumber by Paul Ainsworth
Paul Ainsworth
4th January 2014
Torched Cornish mackerel celeriac remoulade ~ parma ham ~ cucumber by Paul Ainsworth
Torched Cornish mackerel celeriac remoulade ~ parma ham ~ cucumber by Paul Ainsworth (photogrpahy by David Griffen)
Ingredients
Method
Celeriac remoulade
Peel the celeriac then turn it on a vertical Japanese mandolin with a fine blade or julienne by hand. Then mix well with the salt and half the lemon juice for 1-2 hours. Squeeze the celeriac in a clean cloth, then in a clean bowl bind with the mayonnaise and finish with the mustards, lemon juice, sherry vinegar. Season to taste. Keep covered until it’s needed so it doesn’t dry out.
Cucumber pickle
Bring all the ingredients to the boil, check seasoning and cool.
Mackerel pickle
Emulsify all the ingredients together and check for seasoning.
Pickled cucumber
Top, tail and cut the cucumber in half. Then slice it on a Japanese mandolin into 2mm thin strips. Discard any strips with seeds, then trim the strips so they are one inch long. Leave to marinade in the cold cucumber pickle for around 10 minutes so they take on the light pickled flavour. Remove from the pickle and use within 10 minutes or they will lose their colour.
Pickling the mackerel
Season the mackerel fillets with fine salt on both sides. Coat with the emulsified pickle and gently warm on the bottom of a low grill or oven skin side up and turn after a couple of minutes.
To plate up
Place a large table spoon of the remoulade onto four plates in a rectangle just a little smaller than the fillets of mackerel. Then lay the cucumber ribbons onto a cloth to remove excess pickle and season with sea salt. Wrap loosely around your finger to create a neat circle, then place it around the remoulade in five points. Arrange the Parma ham in between the cucumber, drape the pea shoots neatly over the cucumber and Parma ham, then neatly put the other leaves and flowers onto the pea shoots to create a frame for the mackerel.
When the fish is gently warmed but still pink, blow torch the skin until beautifully charred and crisp. Place the mackerel on top of the remoulade being careful not to crush the salad. Finally, dress with a little of the pickling liquor.
In these challenging times…
The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.
Over the last 16 years, The Staff Canteen has built what has become the go-to platform for chefs and hospitality professionals. As members and visitors, your daily support has made The Staff Canteen what it is today. Our features and videos from the world’s biggest name chefs are something we are proud of. We have over 560,000 followers across Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels, each connecting with chefs across the world. Our editorial and social media team are creating and delivering engaging content every day, to support you and the whole sector - we want to do more for you.
A single coffee is more than £2, a beer is £4.50 and a large glass of wine can be £6 or more.
Support The Staff Canteen from as little as £1 today. Thank you.
