Smoke baked mackerel

This dish has taking me a while to find- it all started over wet turnips.

I found out from a chef I know that if you make a salt dough (flour, salt and water) wrap the 1/4 chunks of turnip and bake in a hot oven for 35-40 min the results are amazing. It was the best turnip I had ever tasted.

My mind went into overdrive I pretty much salt baked every root vegetable you could think of- beetroot came out great too. We tried fennel and other things and then I read in 'Ideas in food' that coffee and beetroot go well together so we started experimenting with flavours in the dough.

Until now I had only thought about vegetables, but I drifted into the thought of meat and fish- you know the whole polynesian style cooking, wrap it put it in a pit and bake it for hours and it comes out great. Could you do that with larger bits of meat?

Maybe people are doing that anyway and I am the last one to catch on.

Lets start small so mackerel came to mind, it is cheap and goes with lots of things. Smoked and peppered are my favourite, but I find when you hot smoke things you often get that strong smoke taste that can be just that little bit to harsh and maybe a bit dry.

So we smoked the flour, mixed it with hay ash, salt, pepper and water then wrapped the mackerel and baked it for 12 min. Served it at the table with horseradish and salsa verde and this is it.

 

 Photography by Carla Grassy