Warm Pickled Mackerel with a Salad of Pink Fir Apple Potatoes Quail’s Eggs and Cucumber

Thank goodness mackerel has found favour in restaurants at last. For too long it has been seen as cheap and not worthy of a place on any menu. It really does deserve the new standing it seems to have found for itself Cooking it in pickle, as here, leaves the skin with a slight blue tinge reminiscent of Trout au Bleu. There’s nothing clever about it — the vinegar in the poaching liquor gives the skin the colour but it only works with really fresh fish. Pink fir apples are a type of salad pot