Raymond Blanc’s marinated and grilled mackerel looked so delicious when he demonstrated it on his recent show, that we were eager for the mackerel season to start and as this is my third consecutive mackerel post, you can be confident that the mackerel are around. No more mackerel posts for a while after this one, I promise.

It’s a nice meeting point between cerviche and heat-cooked fish – a gentle introduction to the cooking of fish by acidic foods. It enhances the flavour of the fish, but in a strange way, tempers it, so this might be a nice recipe for people who want to like mackerel but don’t rave about it. If you are a fan of this plentiful oily fish, then this is an interesting and attractive recipe to consider. It’s worth mentioning also that because there’s a lot of vinegar sloshing around, you get little to no lingering cooking smell.

So start with mackerel fillets (see how to fillet a mackerel here )

Then make your marinade by heating white wine vinegar, water, parsley (or coriander), sugar, red onion, pepper and slices of lemon in a saucepan until it’s warm, then transfer it into a wide, shallow container to cool.

It is the single most beautiful marinade I’ve ever seen.

Once the marinade is cold, place your mackerel fillets into it, flesh down and leave it for 20-30 mins.

At this point, you can marvel at the effect of the acidity on the flesh – turning it from this:

To this:

Now to complete the cooking. Heat your grill to high and oil a baking tray.

Remove the fillets from the marinade and pat them dry. Cut some slashes across the skin to stop them curling up and place them on the tray skin side up.

Grill them for around 4-5 mins, or until the skin has crisped and the fillet is cooked through.

Prepare a nice salad – I took advantage of seasonal asparagus – and serve the two together. The original recipe also features a fennel salad with a soy and lime dressing, but we wanted a plainer salad to appreciate the effect of the marinade on the fish. Had it not have been for the little knob of butter on the asparagus, it was unwittingly an incredibly healthy, low fat meal.

But more to the point, it was delicious and pretty.

Nicely flaking mackerel

All together and ready to devour. Yum.

Raymond Blanc’s full, unadulterated recipe is HERE

I only made the marinade and changed a couple of things out of convenience:

250ml white wine vinegar
250ml water
3 stalks parsley
40g caster sugar
small red onion, finely sliced
several turns of the peppermill
4 slices of lemon

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Morning, steeping fruit and sugar! Sleep well? My, haven’t you grown? You’re looking a bit swollen, love.

Best make you into a tea loaf then.

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Preheat oven to GM3/160C/325F and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment.

Add 1 tbsp oil

and beat an egg really well, then pour that in

and stir it well

then add 2 cups of self-raising flour and mix that in thoroughly too.

Spoon the mixture into your lined 2lb tin

Put into the oven and bake.

Mine took 1hr 15mins, but I always, always check it at the 1 hr mark. Check to see if it’s done using a wooden toothpick; clean is good.

Mmmmm.

*sniff* MMMMmmm

Cool in the tin. When fully cooled, keep in the paper and wrap in clingfilm. It really does need to sit until tomorrow – you’ll do it no favours by cutting it now – let it get squidgy.

Tomorrow, you can start cutting slices off. Spread with a little butter if you like. It freezes well, so bear that in mind too!

Now this IS a traditional British recipe – the cold tea loaf; a good keeper, moist, fruity, delicious and very low fat. What’s not to like?

This is in 2 parts simply because before you fling together the ingredients, you first have to soak your dried fruit in cold tea.

Make 1 cup (250 ml) of strong tea – I use 2 teabags. Let it stew and then remove the teabags and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, measure a lightly packed cup of light brown sugar. I use Waitrose’s own light brown sugar because it is much darker and more treacle-y than other brands. If you can’t get it, consider using ¾ light brown and ¼ dark brown sugar. Add that to the bowl and quickly stir together.

Measure 1 lb of dried fruit. This can be raisins or sultanas or a mixture of both. I like to use about 7 oz of raisins, 7 oz of sultanas and 2 oz dates. Cut the dates up so they are nearer the size of the raisins and sultanas. Put into a medium bowl.

Once the tea is cold, pour it over the fruit and sugar and stir briefly again

Cover with clingfilm and leave out overnight.

Night night.

By the way, to make the loaf tomorrow, we need 2 cups self-raising flour, 1 egg and 1 tbsp oil. And a 2lb loaf tin to cook it in.

The rest tomorrow!

Here’s part two