Salt and vinegar mackerel

At Saint Peter, I always announce this as one of my favourite dishes to eat. Be sure to pour olive brine over the pickled fish and have some warm sourdough and cultured butter at the ready. This is a wonderful method for any fish: just adjust the salting and vinegar times based on the size of the fish, but this example is a great starting point. Only leaving it in the vinegar briefly maintains a slight rawness in the centre of the fillet, which gives an amazing final texture that doesn’t taste as familiar as pickled fish.

MAKES 4

INGREDIENTS

4 very fresh blue mackerel fillets, ribs removed, tail intact (about 80g each)

80g (2/3 cup) sea salt flakes

250ml (1 cup) champagne vinegar

METHOD

To pickle the mackerel fillets, leave the pin bones in place. Season both the skin and flesh sides evenly with the salt, then place on a tray and refrigerate, uncovered, for 1 1/2 hours.

Once that time has passed, rinse the salt from the fish in a small amount of the vinegar. Submerge the vinegar-rinsed fish in a bath of the remaining vinegar and leave to pickle for 20–25 minutes.

Remove the pickled mackerel, reserving the vinegar for the next batch you make. Remove the pin bones from the fish at this stage using pliers. Turn the fish on to the flesh side so the skin is facing up. Using a pair of fish pliers or tweezers, grab on to the corner of the skin closest to where the head would have been and pull the skin gently off the flesh, leaving behind the 'silver' skin.

Slice the mackerel about 5mm thick, working from the head to the tail.

Assemble a mackerel across each of four serving plates.

This is an edited extract from Fish Butchery by Josh Niland (Hardie Grant Books, $70).

Photography: Rob Palmer