Mackerel and horseradish salad

The smoked mackerel fillet ticks lots of boxes; healthy, cheap, sustainable fishing – I watched all of Hugh's fish fight and got a bit emotional when the North sea fishermen got so angry and upset about having to throw back all those poor wasted dead fish. Whereas the mackerel are often fished by line and are fast growing plentiful little guys.

This is a really easy lunch or light supper. One packet of smoked mackerel fillets usually has three or four fillets in it, depending on size and will feed a couple of people, maybe three small portions. Remove the skin from the fillets and tear them up into bite size pieces.



Put some leaves in the bottom of your bowls; rocket, spinach, watercress... whatever you choose, but these peppery ones work really well. I once found some wild watercress growing along the sides of a river in the Lake District that was ridiculously peppery, like mustard or wasabi, that kind of strength. I might try growing some as it was so much better than the packet stuff, in small doses...



Hard boil an egg per person, they take about 6/7 minutes after you have brought them to a simmer from cold water. Then run them under a cold tap to cool and stop cooking before you shell them. Mix a small pot of yoghurt with some horseradish, a few teaspoons, depending on how hot you like it, you can also use crème fraiche, and if the yoghurt is a a bit tart add half a teaspoon of sugar.

Then you just need to assemble; scatter the fish over the leaves, quarter the egg and place on top, scatter a few capers around, then drip a few teaspoons of the horseradish yoghurt around and about...