We’re pretty chuffed about launching our website, so to celebrate we’re giving away my ma’s mackerel & beetroot recipe – totally free of charge, a once in a lifetime opportunity!
Around this time of year mackerel landings are tailing off so get some sustainable mackerel whilst you can. Even better, go out and catch some yourself, the fish will soon be returning to our sea lochs and closer to shore.
Ingredients:
- 2-3 fillets of sustainable* smoked mackerel.
- Half a pack of cream cheese
- A bunch of flat leaf parsley
- A lemon
- Toast
- Some greenery (eg rocket/watercress)
- Beetroot
Method
- Check your mackerel is sustainably sourced*, if not, stop, pack your stuff up and go home.
- Peel the skin off the mackerel
- Lob in half a pack of cream cheese
- Chop up half a bunch of parsley and throw that in too
- Squeeze in half a lemon
- Mix it up, a lot!
- Spread it on some toast with the garnish and a slice of beetroot.
- Enjoy your sustainable seafood snackerel.
Mackerel is a striped bullet of a fish. It is a mainstay of the Scottish economy too, accounting for nearly one-third of the value of all fish landed by our Scottish fleet – although a massive amount of that actually isn’t landed to the UK at all, instead it’s taken directly to processors away in Norway. Described as “marine gold” by some fishermen, the mackerel has even found its way onto the new Scottish five pound banknote.
*Most Scottish mackerel is caught by large pelagic boats using purse seine nets, operating way out in the North West and North East Atlantic. It’s a relatively ‘clean’ fishery, because mackerel shoal in vast numbers and boats can target them in the middle of the water column without necessarily impacting the seabed or catching lots of other species.
Its one of the easiest fish to catch by rod and line. If you hit a passing shoal or find a pit, a simple feather rig can bag you a handful of mackerel in just a few minutes. Unfortunately anglers and fishermen have reported fewer mackerel shoaling inshore in recent years.
Because they move around a lot, there is ongoing wrangling about the stock conservation measures. Global landings have rocketed in recent years by almost 50%. We’ll be blogging about sustainability of fish and the health of our seas on this website. Sign up to our newsletter here for updates.
