Grilled Mackerel with Mussel Stew

Name: Grilled Mackerel with Mussel Stew
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 1 bouquet garni (a few fresh basil and tarragon leaves and 1 star anise tied in a muslin bag); 2 teaspoons Pesto Sauce; 2 large tomatoes, skinned, seeded and diced; 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley; 300 ml (10 fl oz) dry white wine; 600 ml (1 pint) Fish Stock; 900 g (2 lb) fresh mussels, washed and bearded; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 100 g (4 oz) unsalted butter; 2 large carrots, cut into 5 mm (¼ in) dice; 2 onions, cut into 5 mm (¼ in) dice; 3 celery sticks, cut into 5 mm (¼ in) dice; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 25 g (1 oz) unsalted butter; 1 tablespoon unsalted butter; 1 sprig of fresh tarragon; 1 onion, diced; 1 carrot, diced; 1 bay leaf; 1 celery stick, diced; 4 mackerel fillets

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

More Rhodes Around Britain

By Gary Rhodes

Published 1995

About

You can leave out the first stage in cooking the mussel stew if you wish and simply cook the mussels in fish stock, but the pre-cooking does give a lot more flavour to the cooking liquor. Turn to p.30 to see the finished dish.

Ingredients

4 mackerel fillets
25 g (1 oz) unsalted butter
Sa

Fish course
Pescatarian
Gluten-free

Method

Butter and season a baking tray.

Trim the mackerel fillets and remove all central bones. This can be done easily by cutting either side of the bones down to the skin but not cutting through. Pick from the head and pull out the central bones; they will come away from the skin in one piece. Place the fillets on the prepared tray skin-side up. Brush the skin with butter and season with sal