Mackerel is a delicious and nutritious fish also known as mackerel or balamut. You can cook many tasty and healthy dishes from it. Mackerel is boiled, baked, smoked, fried, stuffed, salted and pickled. It works well as a snack and goes well with many foods such as vegetables, legumes, rice and other grains.
Brief description of mackerel fish
This fish is from the perch family, found in the waters of the White, Baltic, Mediterranean, Black and Marmara seas. Mackerel also lives in the Atlantic Ocean. The Russian markets sell mainly Atlantic and Far Eastern mackerel. They catch it with trawls and nets. The caught mackerel is frozen with a whole carcass or cut into fillets, portions and steaks.
Useful properties of mackerel
The value of this fish is associated with the high content of unsaturated fatty acids Omega-3 and phosphorus. Also, fish contains vitamins necessary for the body: A, B12, E, D, PP; mineral compounds: iodine, potassium, chromium, sodium, zinc. Eating 100 g of fish per day reduces cholesterol levels and the risk of heart attack, atherosclerosis and cancer. Mackerel is recommended for people with cardiovascular disorders, is indispensable for children and adolescents, and is very useful for pregnant and lactating women.
How to choose and store mackerel
Good quality fresh-frozen mackerel should be uniform in color, with transparent eyes and red gills. When choosing smoked mackerel, you should pay attention to the smell. Smoked mackerel should have a light fishy smell with hints of wood smoke. If the carcass has an intense yellow color, then this indicates the addition of dye to the fish. Too strong a smoking odor indicates the presence of chemical additives. The carcass must be free of damage, dents and tears.
Don't buy smoked mackerel long before the holidays. The shelf life of cold smoked mackerel in the refrigerator is 2 weeks, in the freezer for 3 weeks, and in vacuum packaging from 3 to 4 months. Hot smoked mackerel is stored in the refrigerator for 5-7 days, in the freezer for 25-30 days, and in a vacuum package for 2 months.
Heh from mackerel in Korean
He is a cold fish appetizer, the recipe for which came to us from Korea. The classic he is made from fish with few bones. Delicious and healthy mackerel is a good option for this dish.
Ingredients:
- 1 carcass of mackerel (chilled or frozen)
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 100 ml vinegar 9%
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 50 ml vegetable oil
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 0.5 teaspoon Korean carrot spice
- 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- greens
Step by step cooking:
- If you are using frozen fish, thaw it beforehand.
- Wash the mackerel, cut into fillets and cut into pieces.
- Pour vinegar over the prepared fish, cover with a plate, place the weight and leave to marinate for 30 minutes.
- Peel, wash and grate the carrots for Korean carrots.
- Peel the onion, wash and chop into half rings.
- After 30 minutes, drain 2/3 of the vinegar from the fish, add the onion to the pickled mackerel and stir.
- Crush the garlic with a press.
- Add carrots, Korean carrot spices, minced garlic and salt to the fish. Stir all ingredients. Drizzle with vegetable oil and soy sauce, stir again.
- Cover the dish with a plate, place the weight on top and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
- Fry the sesame seeds in a pan until golden brown.
When serving, sprinkle the mackerel heh with sesame seeds and finely chopped herbs.
Mackerel roll with carrots and eggs
Ingredients:
- 1 fillet of mackerel
- 2 carrots
- 2 eggs
- 20 g gelatin
- salt, pepper to taste
Step by step cooking:
- Defrost the mackerel. Wash well, remove the ridge and bones. Dry the resulting fillet, salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle with dry gelatin.
- Boil eggs and carrots until tender, cool and peel.
- Grate the prepared carrots, cut the eggs into circles. Place half of the grated carrots on one half of the fish fillet and place the eggs on top. Divide the food into the other fillet halves in the same way.
- Connect both pieces to form a whole fish. Wrap the mackerel in plastic wrap, wrap with thread.
- Use a toothpick to make several punctures in the film. Place in a pot of water and cook for 20-25 minutes after boiling water.
- Remove the mackerel from the pan, cool, place the weight on top and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
Before serving, remove the foil from the mackerel, cut into slices and garnish with herbs.
Smoked mackerel pate
Ingredients:
- 1 hot smoked mackerel fillet
- 120 g cream cheese
- a bunch of parsley or dill
- 20 g fresh horseradish
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- zest of half a lemon
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- black pepper to taste
Step by step cooking:
- Remove the skin from the mackerel and separate from the bones and ridge. Make a zest from half a lemon. Add prepared fish, cream cheese, horseradish, herbs, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil and pepper to taste in a blender.
- Whisk all ingredients in a blender until smooth. If you want to get a more pronounced taste of fish in the pate, then do not add it to the blender, but simply chop it finely and mix into the bulk.
Typically, pate is served in portions, spread over bread, toast or crackers. But you can also serve in a common dish, decorating with herbs.
Imeretian mackerel appetizer
This spicy way of marinating fish came to us from Georgia. According to this recipe, you can cook not only mackerel, but also any fatty fish.
Ingredients:
- 1 kg fresh mackerel
- 2 onions
- 1 hot pepper
- 1 bunch of cilantro
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- 120 g wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons of salt
- 8-10 pieces of black peppercorns
- 3 pieces of bay leaves
- 1.5 liters of water
Step by step cooking:
- Peel the fish, wash and cut into portions.
- Peel the onion, wash, cut into four parts.
- Pour one and a half liters of water into a saucepan, bring to a boil, throw chopped onions, add salt, bay leaf and peppercorns, mix everything. Dip the fish into a saucepan, boil for 5-7 minutes.
- Finely chop the garlic and cilantro. Cut hot peppers into thin rings.
- Remove the mackerel from the broth, transfer to a wide bowl. Sprinkle with garlic and cilantro.
- Strain the broth, leave about 700-800 ml. Add wine vinegar and hot peppers to the broth and stir.
- Pour the marinade over the mackerel, cover and refrigerate for 6-8 hours.
Serve Imeretian mackerel with lemon and herbs.
Eggs stuffed with mackerel
Ingredients:
- 300 g smoked mackerel
- 8-10 eggs
- 2 onions
- 1 bunch of parsley or dill
- 50 g vegetable oil
- 4 tablespoons vinegar
- half a white loaf
- salt, pepper to taste
Step by step cooking:
- Boil hard-boiled eggs, cool and peel. Cut each egg in half and remove the yolks.
- Peel the onion, wash and cut into four parts. Cut the loaf into arbitrary pieces.
- Peel the smoked mackerel and separate from the bones. Cut the mackerel fillet into pieces, pass through a meat grinder with chopped onions and pieces of loaf.
- Add vinegar, egg yolks, black pepper, vegetable oil to the minced meat and mix well. Put 1-2 tablespoons of the filling in the prepared egg halves.
Sprinkle the stuffed eggs with chopped herbs when serving.
Mackerel in tartlets with vegetables and apple
Ingredients:
- 1 carcass of salted mackerel
- 1 sour apple
- 1 carrot
- 3 potatoes
- 100 g mayonnaise
- 10-12 tartlets
- 1 bunch of greens
- salt, pepper to taste
Step by step cooking:
- Wash and boil the potatoes and carrots.
- Cool vegetables, peel and cut into cubes.
- Wash the apple, peel it, cut the core and cut into cubes.
- Cut the mackerel into fillets, cut into thin slices.
- In a separate bowl, combine carrots, potatoes and apple.
- Season with mayonnaise, salt, pepper and stir.
- Fill each tartlet with the vegetable mass and place the mackerel pieces on top.
Garnish with a sprig of dill or parsley when serving.
