Mackerel with crispy bacon, fennel and gooseberry jam
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 1 to 2 hours
- Serve
- Serves 2
Tangy gooseberries and aromatic fennel cut through the richness in this seasonal dish by Matt Tebbutt
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 rashers streaky bacon
- 2 mackerel fillets
- 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 100ml/3½fl oz white wine
- 50ml/2fl oz vermouth
- 150g/5½oz fresh gooseberries
- 1 bay leaf
- fresh dill sprigs, to garnish
Method
Place a frying pan over a medium-high heat, then add some olive oil and the bacon and fry until crisp, this will take 2 minutes on each side Remove and keep warm, leaving the fat in the pan.
Cut each mackerel fillet into 3 pieces and score the skin. Fry on medium heat, skin-side down, for 2 minutes in the bacon fat until it’s cooked three-quarters of the way, then flip over and cook for a further 2 minutes to finish cooking.
In a saucepan, sweat the fennel, shallot and fennel seeds in plenty of olive oil. Add the white wine and vermouth and cover with a cartouche (a piece of parchment paper cut into a circle and placed on top as a lid). Simmer gently for 1 hour.
Add the gooseberries and cook for another 20 minutes.
Remove a few of the gooseberries for garnish. Use a hand-held stick blender or food processor to blend the rest into a smooth purée, then push through a sieve.
To serve, spoon some purée onto a plate, top with the mackerel and bacon and spoon over some of the reserved gooseberries. Garnish with the dill sprigs to finish.
