I dislike all this negativity towards Mackerel. For want of an excuse for a headline pun I think it’s perfectly fitting to be honest. There are two sides to this story, firstly is from a good quantity of people who just shun it aside without the thought to taste it and secondly is just the cruelty from a cat’s perspective when a human eats it without sharing. The latter story happened today at lunch. Poor Ash, but a girl’s gotta eat too!
As a graduate, money is inevitably an everyday woe in the back of my mind, particularly when it comes to what food to spend my money on. Smoked, cooked and prepared Mackerel is £2.30 for around 6-7 strips at my local supermarket and if I’m strapped for cash it is most certainly my best friend. As it’s already prepared and cooked all you have to do is take off the skin on the back of the strips, shred the fish meat in pieces and add to pretty much any staple for a good meal. Aside this recipe, I absolutely love cooked rice, vegetables and mackerel all fried up in some lemony olive oil and butter for a quick meal.
Anyway, enough campaigning.
Today my fiancé and I got our first wedding present (rather early- as the weddings in May) my new Kitchenaid mixer! 🙂
I didn’t have enough sugary ingredients to test it to its best ability, so I opted for this hearty tarragon, bean and mackerel soup for lunch instead. Feel free to substitute the veggies for what ever is left in your cupboard! Perfect, quick cooking.
No more mackruelty hey? Well at least, just try it.
Tarragon, bean and mackerel soup.
Ingredients:
Olive oil
Chunk of butter
4 Spring onions chopped
1 Courgette chopped (or any other vegetables, carrot, mushrooms work well)
2 Bay Leaves
1 Vegetable stock cube
Tin of Cannelini beans
4-6 Strips of cooked smoked mackerel cut up into chunks
Black Pepper
Dried or fresh tarragon, a few tablespoons or sprigs.
Squeeze of lemon juice
Directions
Put the bay leafs, vegetable stock/cube and tarragon into a measuring jug and fill with ½ a litre of boiling water and leave to stew.
Put the chunk of olive oil and butter into a deep pan on a medium heat.
Add your chopped spring onions to the pan with the clove of garlic until the juices all start to marinade and fry.
Pop in the chopped courgettes or any other vegetables you want to put in.
Add in the tin of cannelini beans and grind over lots of black pepper!
Pour the ¼ litre of stock mixture with the aromatics into the pan of veggies.
Bring to the boil for 5 minutes and then take down to a medium heat for 20 minutes.
Squeeze in the lemon juice and give it a stir.
Add in the cut up mackerel chunks and leave to stew for a minute to release the flavour.
Serve with lots of crusty gluten free bread. Yum.
<3 xxxSxxx <3
