Peppered smoked mackerel with dill pollen

Dill Pollen and Smoked Mackerel – a Simple Fusion of Flavour:

I made this lunch dish to showcase two ingredients.  Some lovely smoked peppered mackerel from John at Delish Fish and Dill Pollen sent to me by David at Global Harvest.  I wanted a quick and easy lunch dish but thought it would be fun to make something a bit prettier than just grilling the mackerel (or even eating it straight from the packet).

The pickled beetroot is my own homemade from last year so it is just a little lighter than most of the pickles you can buy in the shops.  This dish would work with any kind of pre-cooked beetroot, if you don’t like the pickled sort, you could just add a little lemon juice to the creme fraiche sauce.

Be warned, the beetroot starts to bleed very quickly, so you need to plate it up just before you are ready to serve.

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Peppered Smoked Mackerel on Ciabatta

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

5 mins

Total Time

10 mins

 

This is a very easy lunch dish that looks rather grand. You can serve the same topping on bruschetta slices, but for me, these ciabatta rolls are the perfect size for a lunch dish. If you don't have dill pollen, then you could make this with just fresh dill - and if you don't have fresh dill, a little extra dill pollen would work nicely too!

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: European

Servings: 2

Author: Fiona Maclean

Ingredients

• 2 peppered smoked mackerel fillets
• 2 ciabatta rolls
• 2 medium slices pickled beetroot cut into chunks
• 1 handful fresh dill
• 2 tablespoons creme fraiche
• 3 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pinch dill pollen

Instructions

1. Mix together most of the dill (reserve a little for garnish), dill pollen, creme fraiche and one teaspoon of olive oil
2. But the ciabbata rolls in half lengthwise and drizzle the remaining olive oil over the cut side
3. Heat the grill to medium and grill the smoked mackerel fillets and ciabatta rolls for about 2 minutes on each side, till the mackerel is warm through
4. Using a fork, remove the flesh from the skin of the mackerel and mash up a little
5. Plate the rolls by dividing the mackerel to top each roll, then alternating a cube of beetroot with a dollop of the creme fraiche dressing
6. Garnish with the remaining dill sprigs and serve.