Mackerel is one of the fish we like to cook the most around here. It is cheap, has a fairly long and long season and, apart from how tedious it is to remove the bones, it has rich, fatty meat with an intense flavor. Handling it is relatively easy: if you ask your trusted fishmonger to clean it and separate it into two loins, you only have to freeze it at home for five days to avoid risks when eating it raw. The work of this recipe consists, almost exclusively, in cleaning the loins of bones. Once we have finished this process -something that you can speed up by buying clean and deep-frozen loins directly- a quick curing and an oriental air dressing will finish off the dish.
The curing process basically consists of subjecting a protein and fat food to a salt treatment. This technique was used as a preserve: the salt causes an extraction of the water from the cells of the food, creating an inhospitable environment for bacteria and thus preventing them from reproducing. On the other hand, sugar is usually another important ingredient in curing, as it encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria such as lactobacillus, which is tolerant of high concentrations of salt and, strictly speaking, very territorial: it serves as a protective barrier against to other bacteria that want to colonize our cured food. But, beyond preserving, curing provides nuances of flavor that we would not achieve without it, as anyone who has eaten Serrano or Iberian ham knows.
For this recipe we are going to do a quick curing: an hour and a half will be enough to get the nuances and textures that interest us in the mackerel loins, which we will accompany with a false ponzu sauce prepared with pineapple juice and soy sauce (not be that you have access to the yuzu of the original recipe in a regular and cheap way, of course). To top it off, the addition of ginger, jalapeño, coriander and lime will bring freshness to the dish, making it a very simple recipe to prepare and quite economical. If you find the acidity of pineapple juice and lime somewhat abrasive, you can take advantage of seasonal sweet fruits -such as figs- to compensate.
Difficulty
That of removing the bones from the loins or having the confidence to ask for it in your fishmonger.
Ingredients
For 2 persons
- A whole mackerel of about 400 g
- 3 tablespoons of fine salt
- 4 tablespoons of white sugar
- 40ml pineapple juice
- 1.5 tablespoons soy sauce
- The juice and zest of half a lime
- 1 jalapeno sliced
- 1 piece of ginger in sticks
- Coriander leaves to taste
- 1 stalk Chinese chives (or regular chives)
- Ground black pepper to taste (or chili flakes)
Preparation
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Starting from a mackerel already cleaned, filleted and previously frozen, prepare a mixture of fine salt and white sugar with which to cover the loins completely and refrigerate them for an hour and a half.
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After the curing time, clean the loins in plenty of cold water, dry them and store in the freezer while we prepare the rest of the ingredients.
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Mix the pineapple juice with the soy sauce, the zest and the juice of half a lime. Refrigerate.
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Cut the jalapeño, ginger, Chinese spring onion and separate the coriander leaves.
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We take the loins out of the freezer and fillet them at an angle of approximately 30º to create more bite surface, with a piece thickness of one or 1.5 cm more or less. Plate.
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Add the pineapple ponzu sauce over the mackerel slices and decorate with the jalapeño, Chinese spring onion, coriander and ginger. Add a pinch of ground black pepper and serve to eat right away.
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