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.

Escabeche plated.

More escabeche recipes:

Quail Lollipops in Escabeche.

Chicken Wings in Escabeche.

Anchovies in Bitter Orange Escabeche.

Pickled Mushrooms.

Quinoa Salad with Partridge in Escabeche.

Marinated Bonito with Olives.

More recipes with mackerel:

Mackerel with Pisto Vegetables.

Horse Mackerel Biscay Style.

ESCABECHE--A TANGY MARINADE FOR COOKED FOODS

Quail legs in escabeche marinade make a tasty tapa.

Escabeche is one of my favorite cooking methods. I use it for fish, poultry and game. The procedure, which involves putting cooked food into a vinegar marinade, makes tangy foods that are great for tapas and for salads.

Escabeche is an ancient way of preserving foods. Hunting once was much a part of rural life in every region of Spain. where small game—rabbit, hare, partridge and quail—were free for the taking on scrubby hillsides and in dry ravines. During the season when hunters returned with an abundance, the game would be dressed-out and cooked in a marinade, then packed into clay pots. Olive oil in the marinade would rise to the top and create a protective seal, allowing the escabeche foods to be kept for several months during the cold season. Chunks of marinated meat could be reheated with beans or added, cold, to salads.

Typically, escabeche is made with white wine, vinegar, olive oil, onion, garlic, salt, peppercorns, pimentón or dried chile, cloves and bay leaf. In order to conserve the game, the marinade needed to be very strong in vinegar. Nowadays, with refrigeration, the escabeche is not so sharp.

Escabeche marinade is also used with fish, both fresh water trout, pike and tench, and seafood such as mackerel, sardines and oysters. Fish is gutted, floured and fried until thoroughly cooked. Then hot escabeche marinade is poured over the pieces of fish. Left to marinate for a day or two, the fish acquires a delicious tang. Escabeche fish is usually served as a cold dish, on a bed of lettuce and garnished with lemon and sliced tomatoes.

When  preparing escabeche marinades, use nonreactive pans and bowls—glass or ceramic. Dusting the fish or poultry pieces with flour before frying keeps them from splattering in the hot oil and allows them to brown nicely. If using leftover cooked food (for example, roast turkey), simply add it to the marinade and bring to a boil. It does not need to cook further. Warming escabeche before serving helps to liquefy the jellied marinade. The foods can can be served warm or room temperature. 


ChupaChups de Codorniz en Escabeche
Lollipops of Quail in Escabeche Marinade

ChupaChups is a popular brand of lollipop. Eat these miniscule quail legs right off the bone like a lolly, a two-bite tapa. Leave drumstick and thigh connected if you’re cutting them from whole quail. This recipe can also be prepared using chicken drumettes, the thick, first joint of a chicken wing. 

To serve as finger food, reheat the legs or wings to liquefy the sauce and skim them out of the liquid. If desired, wrap ends in foil, and serve with paper napkins, as they are a bit messy. They can also be used in the following recipe for Salad of Pickled Partridge or Chicken.

Makes 12 tapas.

12 whole quail legs or chicken wings
Flour for dredging
Salt and pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek (white part only), sliced
1 carrot, sliced crosswise
1 slice of onion
1 slice of lemon
2 cloves garlic, slivered lengthwise
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon pimentón (paprika) stirred into 1 tablespoon water
1 small dry red chile (optional)
10 peppercorns
1 teaspoon oregano
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup water
 ½ cup white wine
½ cup wine vinegar
Salad greens and cherry tomatoes, to serve

Sprinkle the quail legs with salt and pepper. Dredge them in flour and shake off excess. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet on medium heat. Brown the quail on both sides, about 2 minutes. Remove. Wipe out the pan.

Add remaining 2 tablespoons of oil to the pan with the leek, carrot, onion, lemon, garlic, bay leaf, pimentón, chile, if using; peppercorns, oregano, salt, water, wine and vinegar. Bring to a boil. Return the quail to the pan. Cover and simmer until quail is tender, but not falling off the bone, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow the quail to cool in the marinade.

Cover and refrigerate at least 24 hours or up to 48 hours. Serve cold or room temperature, garnished with salad leaves and tomatoes.

Salad of chicken wing escabeche.

Ensalada con Escabeche
Escabeche Salad

Partridge in spiced escabeche is an emblematic dish of La Mancha (central Spain). If you find canned pickled partridge at gourmet shops, serve it in this delectable salad. The salad is almost as good made with chicken wings in escabeche. Strip the meat from the bones, discarding most of the skin too. You’ll need the meat from about 8 wings (16 wing pieces) to serve 4. Use some of the carrots from the marinade in the salad too. The salad can be garnished with pickled mushrooms and onions. Or, omit the pickles and scatter pomegranate seeds over the salad.

Serves 4.

4 cups mixed salad greens
3 cups boned partridge or chicken wings in escabeche plus pickling liquid
8 hard-cooked quail eggs, halved, or 4 hard-cooked eggs, quartered
Cherry tomatoes or sliced plum tomatoes
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons chopped scallions
Pickled mushrooms, optional
Pickled onions, optional
Olives or capers
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Divide the salad greens between 4 salad plates. Divide the boned partridge or chicken between the plates. If there are carrot pieces in the escabeche, scatter them around the partridge or chicken.

Garnish the partridge with hard-cooked eggs, tomatoes, oregano, scallions, pickled mushrooms and onions, if using, olives or capers.

If escabeche liquid is jellied, heat it briefly in microwave or in a saucepan to liquefy. Drizzle 2 teaspoons of the pickling liquid over each salad. Dribble 1 teaspoon oil over each. Garnish with chopped parsley.