MY KITCHEN IN SPAIN: HOLY MACKEREL!

They’re cheap, they’re healthful, they’re delicious. Mackerel, a fish in no danger of over-fishing, is a summertime treat.

If mackerel has any drawback, it’s that the oil-rich flesh deteriorates rapidly. Eat them fresh, fried, baked or grilled. For longer keeping, put them in escabeche, a vinegar marinade.

Fillets of mackerel in escabeche center a salad platter, a perfect summer lunch.

Escabeche is an ancient way of preserving foods in a marinade. (The word derives, via Arabic, from the Persian sikbâg.) Typically, escabeche is made with vinegar, olive oil and salt, often with aromatics such as garlic and herbs. Vinegar is a potent preservative. Olive oil in the marinade rises to the top as the food cools and creates a protective seal, allowing the escabeche foods to be kept for periods of time without refrigeration.

Mackerel in escabeche is particularly popular in Cádiz, Málaga and Huelva (Andalusia) where this fish is common. In Galicia, simple escabeche, with vinegar, garlic and pimentón (paprika) is used for sardines, shad and lamprey as well as mussels and oysters. In inland regions such as La Mancha, escabeche is a traditional way of preserving fresh-water fish such as trout, pike and tench. If you haven’t got mackerel, sardines or trout, try this with farmed catfish.

Traditionally, the fish is gutted, floured and fried until thoroughly cooked. Then boiling hot escabeche marinade is poured over the pieces of fish. Easier, skip the frying and cook the fish right in the marinade.

You can make this dish with whole (gutted) fish or fillets. Even when the spine has been removed, mackerel has fine bones that are much easier to pull out after the fish is cooked.

For presentation, try to keep the fillets intact—but save any chunks that break up, as they are terrific mashed up with hard-cooked egg and mayonnaise for “tuna” salad sandwich.

How to serve escabeche? As a cold dish garnished with leafy greens and tomatoes, it makes a good starter or luncheon entrée. Those crunchy pickled carrots in the marinade are delicious, by the way.

Serve mackerel in escabeche as a starter, garnished with pickled carrots, potatoes, eggs and greens.

Serve mackerel fillet on toasts and garnish with strips of red pepper from the marinade.

Mash the mackerel up with chopped carrots, red peppers, hard-cooked egg and a little mayo. Use it as a sandwich spread or topping for toasts.

Salad with mackerel and vegetables makes a main course dish.

Mackerel in Escabeche Marinade

Caballa en Escabeche

Serves 6.

Mackerel.

3-4 whole mackerel, 2 ½-3 pounds

Salt

¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, julienne sliced

2 carrots, sliced

½ cup julienned red bell pepper

6 cloves garlic, slivered

Red pepper flakes (optional)

2 bay leaves

Sprig of lemon thyme (optional)

Strip of orange or lemon zest

¼ teaspoon black peppercorns

¼ teaspoon coriander seed

Pinch of ground cloves

½ cup white wine

¾ cup white wine vinegar

¼ cup water

Cooked potato, sliced, to serve (optional)

Leafy greens, to serve (optional)

Hard-cooked eggs, to serve (optional)

Flaky salt

Use paper towels to wipe out any remaining blood in the cavity of the fish. Wash the mackerel well and pat them dry. Sprinkle them inside and out with salt.

Heat ½ cup of the oil in a pan large enough to hold the fish. Add the onion, carrots, red pepper and garlic. Poach them in the oil until somewhat softened, 5 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes, if using; the bay leaves; thyme, if using; lemon zest; peppercorns; coriander; cloves; wine; vinegar; water, and 1 teaspoon salt. Cover the pan and cook the vegetables 10 minutes.

Carefully place the fish in the pan. Raise the heat so the liquid bubbles gently. Cover the pan and cook the fish 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the mackerel to finish cooking in the residual heat, 15 minutes. (The fish is cooked if it easily separates from the bone.)

Lift out spines.

Use a slotted spatula to remove the mackerel to a platter. While they are still warm, use a table knife to scrape off the skin. Split a fish open along the spine and lay it flat. Lift out and discard the spine. Cut each half into two fillets, carefully removing any bones. (Fingers work best for finding the bones.)

Place the fillets in a non-reactive container (glass or ceramic). Ladle escabeche over each layer. If fillets fall apart, layer the pieces along with the whole fillets. Pour all the remaining escabeche liquid over the mackerel. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of remaining olive oil over the top.

Layer mackerel with marinade.

Cover tightly with a lid or a triple layer of plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 8 hours and up to 36 hours.

To serve, lift fillets of mackerel out of the marinade and place them on plates with leafy greens. Garnish with strips of red pepper and sliced carrots from the escabeche plus sliced potatoes and eggs, if using. Spoon escabeche marinade over the mackerel and potatoes. Sprinkle with flaky salt and drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil.