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Mackerel with buttered greens

and pickled radish

Serves 1

One of my favourite food festivals takes place in May each year on the beach in St Ives, Cornwall. The setting could not be more inspiring – you can smell the sea as you cook. This dish came together one year when I heard about a mackerel honesty box where you could buy the freshest local mackerel for pennies. A kindly local gent was known for having a mackerel ‘shed’ which was always stocked with ready filleted, sparklingly fresh catch just outside his house. I couldn’t resist walking the streets until I found the box. I paired the mackerel fillets with freshly foraged three-cornered leek, which grows like a weed in Cornwall, and is beautiful wilted in butter and served with pan-fried mackerel. If you can’t find wild leeks, use the greens of spring onions or baby leeks, thinly sliced lengthways, with a handful of spinach.

handful of samphire

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

sprig of thyme

1 × medium fillet of mackerel, pin-boned

10g unsalted butter

handful of baby spinach

60g three-cornered leek (or spring onions)

½ lemon, for squeezing

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the pickled radish

1 tbsp cider vinegar

2 tsp caster sugar

pinch of salt

2 radishes, thinly sliced, preferably with a mandoline

1 First, quick-pickle your radishes. Whisk the vinegar, sugar and salt in a bowl until the sugar has dissolved. Toss the radish slices through the vinegar and leave them to pickle while you cook the fish.

2 Blanch the samphire in a saucepan of boiling water for 30 seconds, then drain.

3 Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based, non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the thyme and allow it to infuse in the oil for a few seconds, then add the mackerel fillet, skin side down. Season the flesh with salt and pepper and cook, without moving the fillet, for 3–4 minutes, until the skin is crispy and the flesh is starting to cook through and become opaque. Carefully flip the fillet over and continue cooking on the flesh side for a matter of seconds, then transfer to a plate to rest.

4 Add the butter to the pan, followed by the samphire, spinach and three-cornered leek. Season with salt and pepper and wilt the greens in the butter for 2–3 minutes, tossing to thoroughly combine. Pour away any excess liquid, squeeze over a little lemon juice and serve the mackerel on the wilted greens with the pickled radish on the side.