There has already been a lot of red meat in the run up to Christmas, and it’s not going to stop any time soon, so for Xmas Eve we’re going to have a light fish dinner.

Mackerel is one of my favourite fish, but I only ever have it fresh abroad in holiday, always going for smoked mackerel at home. So I ordered some fresh mackerel, and hoped I’d find a good recipe for it.

Some interweb searching later, I found this Jamie Oliver recipe for grilled mackerel with pickled onions and a gooseberry chutney. Well we have our homemade pickled shallots to use up, and I have a can of gooseberries lying around not doing anything!

However just mackerel, chutney and crème fraîche doesn’t seem like a full dinner. So I’m dropping the crème fraîche and adding some baby spinach with pine nuts, some horseradish, and some homemade pickled beetroot to fill out the plate.

So… chutney first.

Then get the ‘two’ mackerel I ordered… and gut and fillet.

Homemade pickled shallots on top.

And serve!

This was a plate of complimenting flavours. Every mix of forkfulls works together: beetroot & spinach, horseradish & mackerel, mackerel & gooseberries… Thanks Jamie!