Cured Mackerel

I love mackerel. It’s one of my favorite fishes – a beautiful dark blue-purple-ish meat with striped iridescent silver skin that is delicious and packed full of omega-3 rich oils. It’s an incredibly versatile fish, and while I’ve tried my hand at most things, from salads, in sushi (Saba) or baking it, I never got around to curing it at home.

Cured mackerel comes out insanely delicious, and it’s crazy that it only takes 10 minutes of your hands on time to prep it. Closer to 5 minutes really, truth be told. I was almost too embarrassed to put this up as a recipe because it’s so simple. But then I realized that this is actually the best example of a ridiculously easy and fast dinner that is made from scratch and fancy enough to serve up at a dinner party. The process just involves packing whole mackerels in salt and letting the natural curing process do its thing for about 3 days in the refrigerator.

The melt-in-your-mouth texture and subtle flavor of cured mackerel accompanied by simple boiled potatoes sprinkled with crispy caramelized onions is really quite something amazing.

Give it a try. It will blow your mind!

Ingredients:

3 fresh mackerels

1/2 cup sea salt

3 bay leaves

1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper

few pepper corns

First, wash and pat dry the fish. My recipe involves curing whole mackerels with guts in. This way fish stays moist and doesn’t become as salty.

In a small bowl combine salt and pepper. Then spoon the mixture generously on a sheet of plastic wrap, place the fish on top and then sprinkle the rest of the salt on top. Wrap the fish in plastic wrap and leave the fish in the refrigerator for 3 days.

Three days later, unwrap it and rinse off the cure. Pat it dry, remove the guts, slice and serve immediately. Use in sashimi or simply serve with tender potatoes, cooked in boiling water and then sprinkled with crispy caramelized onions.