Baked mackerel, on a bed of curly kale with salad salsa and small potatoes.

I’d like to open up my food blog with an experiment from home based on things that I like and know so far.

I saw some very reasonably priced mackerel at my local Sainsbury’s and decided that I would try baking the entire fish and present it in a visual impressive way.

I picked up a few other vegetables to go with the fish and took it all home to start cooking.

The mackerel itself I simply cleaned and then placed into tin foil, I added a light marinade which consisted of a table spoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of ground ginger, juice of one lime and a pinch of chilli flakes. I then wrapped all of this up and put into the oven on medium heat 180C

Whilst the mackerel was cooking I prepared some curly kale, small potatoes for steaming and created a fresh salad salsa with two tomatoes, half a white onion, one teaspoon of white wine vinegar, one teaspoon of olive oil and some ground coriander which I then salted and peppered to taste.

After baking the mackerel on medium for around 20 minutes I then opened up the tin foil pockets at the top and reduce the heat to 120C to finish.

To serve I laid out a bed of Kale and placed the whole fish with juices on top, I added the side of potatoes with some fresh butter and ground sea salt and then drizzled the salad salsa on top of the fish.

My rating out of 10 is 7. My partner Kristine rated it a 9 as she really enjoyed the salsa but she thought the potatoes were a bit too filling and a bit basic. I thought the fish was too moist at the bottom and thought the salsa could have been a little sweeter.

The next time I attempt this dish I will bake the mackerel in the oven on a rack and baste with the lime marinade sans the ginger. Drizzled liberally each side for 15 minutes at 160C, turning once.

I will also quickly fry up the salsa in a small pan to sweeten the onion and finally I would slice the potatoes into small medallions with some butter and tarragon.

I will definitely be revisiting this dish, curly kale is a great way to present mackerel and we both enjoyed the meal immensely.

This dish is Gluten free, Pescetarian, Dairy free and Paleo friendly if you omit the potato/butter maybe try some parsnip chips instead.