Grilled mackerel with beetroot, orange and olive salsa

Serves: 4
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 0 hr 30 mins
Ingredients
  • <ul> <li>4 beetroot</li> <li>1 orange, peeled and segmented</li> <li>100g stoned kalamata olives, roughly chopped</li> <li>2 spring onions, finely sliced</li> <li>big bunch each of parsley and basil, chopped</li> <li>Olive oil</li> <li>Pinch chili flakes</li> <li>salt and pepper</li> <li>1 tbsp harissa paste (available in most supermarkets)</li> <li>Large knob butter</li> <li>4 mackerel fillets</li> </ul>

Preheat an oven to 160 degrees/gas 3.

To make the salsa, roast the beetroot in tin foil till they are tender – about 45 minutes – and then peel and dice them.

Then, in a bowl, toss the diced beetroot with the orange segments, olives, spring onions, chopped herbs and a slick of olive oil.

Add some chilli if you like it hot, and season with salt and pepper. Set this aside and keep it at room temperature.

Heat your grill till it’s super-hot. Mix the harissa paste into the butter. Score the skin on the mackerel (this will stop it curling up), and dot the harissa butter onto the fillets.

Grill them, skin side up, until crisp – this will take about seven minutes or so. Be careful not to burn them, though a little charring is okay. You don’t need to cook them on both sides, but you can do if you like your fish really well done.

Serve with lots of salsa.

Domini Kemp

Domini Kemp

Domini Kemp, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a chef and food writer