Warm Mackerel salad with cucumber and hoisin

Grilled marinated mackerel with crunchy cucumbers, spring onions, and water chestnuts served with a spicy hoisin dressing.

I gave up ordering food from Chinese take aways a good few years back. Thier use of msg as a flavour enhancer eventually turned me off them, it just makes everything taste the same. I reckon that if you did a blind taste test, closed your eyes, and tasted the sauces they make you wouldn’t be able to tell a black bean from a satay sauce

Like everything there are exceptions and i still pick up the phone to have the classic crispy duck with pancakes and plum sauce sent up to the house. I think its the textures that I like most about the dish. Crispy duck and vegetables smothered with the piquant plum sauce all wrapped up in soft pancakes.

Its not often that I could say that the local chinese takeout served as an inspiration for a dish but Its definitely the case with this salad. The cucumbers and spring onions that you wrap the pancakes around work really well with fish, but for some extra crunch I’ve added some bean sprouts, water chestnuts, and sesame seeds.

I also ditched the plum sauce in favour of hoisin, my favourite chinese condiment. I love its thick, pungent, sweet, and spicy flavour. I had been putting hoisin in stir fries and dipping spring rolls in it for years before looking it up to find out what was in it.

I was surprised to learn that it actually contains no plums but is made with roasted mashed soybeans. Along with sugar, sesame seeds, vinegar, garlic, and a little bit of red chilli for some added kick. If you don’t have any hoi sin you could use oyster sauce it works well in this salad too.

I’ve used mackerel here in my salad. I love this tasty, cheap, and sustainable fish as you can probably tell by the amount of recipes I have for it on the site already. Whenever you eat it you’re getting a boost for your immune system as well as plenty of omega 3. Isn’t it great the way some foods are good for you and tasty too! Just make sure your mackerel is really fresh and if your fish monger doesn’t have any substitute sea bream or bass, both would work well in this salad.

Lately when I’m cooking fish at home under the grill is my favourite way to do it. Sometimes I’m just too lazy to get a pan out and all that entails. Cooking your fish like this will require little attention, just a little peek every now and again to see if it’s cooked. Line your roasting tray with some foil you’ll have no wash up afterwards either, and it will catch-all that beautiful marinade from the fish as it cooks.

Or kill two birds with the one stone and toast your sesame seeds as the fish cooks. Toasting sesame seeds really intensifies their rich nutty flavour, It always amazes me how such a small seed can provide such a big crunch. I love sprinkling them on salads like this to give a bit of a different texture or pressing them on to fish like salmon or trout before gently pan frying or baking in the oven

Winters on the way if it’s not here already and you might think the time for making salads passed a couple of weeks ago. But give this one a try. You’ll love the crunchy textures and rich umami flavours. It works well as an appetizer or cook some rice to go along with it and have it for lunch or supper.