One of the draws of life on board a sailing boat is making the most of what you have to hand, resourcefulness becomes second nature as you are often far from the nearest shop. It’s one of the reasons I love cooking, specifically at sea. Where I am completely aware that not everyone has access to fresh mackerel, or is able to go fishing for it themselves. Should you however be presented with such an occasion, it would be a shame for you to not know what to do……

The thing about mackerel is that they tend to arrive without prior warning and are often in abundance. They are very easy to catch if they are visibly present and impossible to catch if you can’t actually see them swimming through the water. It is often in the evenings, or first thing in the morning when the water is very still and the light is just about to dim, that you will see ripples flying across the water, as though a gust of wind has just blown, this, my friends, is your moment to strike.

Using any regular/cheap fishing rod with mackerel feathers on it should do the trick, cast your line out into the sea and reel it in straight away. You will feel whether it has worked immediately and if not just keep casting and reeling in until it does.

If you manage to time this right, you will catch the mackerel in the evening, you will head and gut* them and then leave them in a bucket of seawater overnight.

TO MAKE THE BRIOCHE BUNS

500g Strong White Bread Flour

4 Large eggs

80g White Sugar

2 x 7.5g sachets of fast-acting yeast

100ml of milk

approximately 2 tbsps of butter (salted/unsalted it’s up to you)

Begin by very gently warming the milk in a small pan on the hob, just a little bit warm so that you can still easily touch it with your fingers.

Meanwhile, measure the 500 grams of white bread flour & 80g of white sugar and 2 x 7.5-gram sachets of yeast into a large mixing bowl, and crack the 4 eggs onto the dry ingredients. Gently pour half of the milk into the mix then begin to knead immediately with clean warm hands. Break up the yolks, and combine everything very evenly and well, it should be a golden colour and quite dense but not dry, if it is too dry add a little more of the milk, but you might not need all of it, it will depend on the size of your eggs. Keep kneading for about 5 minutes and once it is soft and pillowy, add the butter in two tablespoon-sized lumps. Push it into the middle of the ball of dough and knead it after the first one and after the second. Your dough should now have a gentle sheen to it and will tear slightly at the surface when it is moulded into a ball.

Try not to add more flour to the mix, go gently with the milk, it will be a rich soft and heavy dough, but the two sachets of yeast will give it plenty of rise and it will be very soft and delicious. Place the dough gently back in its bowl and leave it somewhere warm with a plastic bag over it until it has doubled in size, approx 45mins/ 1 hr.

Now you will have time to wash up the breakfast dishes.

Once your dough has doubled in size, you can use a dough scraper to divide it into 8 equal pieces. Gently shape them into round little buns, then space them evenly in a baking tray on parchment paper. Leave them to rise again.

While these are rising you can fillet your mackerel.

FILLETING MACKEREL

Once you have headed and gutted your fish (please see the final section for separate instructions) you can keep them in the fridge overnight and fillet them whilst the brioche dough is rising. Personally, I like to go for a butterflying technique, as I find it the most efficient way to get rid of as many bones as possible. I also think it actually works better if the fish has been in the fridge overnight.

You will need a sharp knife and a pair of fish boning tweezers (you can also use fine needle nose pliers, but do wash them well before and after).To butterfly a mackerel, hold it so that its stomach is facing a chopping board. Press down hard along the spine onto the board, so that the body butterflies out on either side. Flip over your fish and pull as much of the intact spine and skeleton as you can away from the flesh of the fish. It should come away in one piece. Afterwards, use your fingers to feel for any leftover bones and remove them with the tweezers.

ONCE THE BRIOCHE BUNS HAVE RISEN.

Use a pastry brush to wash them with an egg yolk (just the yolk will have a richer shine) then sprinkle with sesame seeds, and place them in a preheated oven of 180 C for 25 mins. Try not to open the door for the first 20 mins, then check if they are done by rolling one of them over and giving the bottom a tap, if it is hard and hollow sounding take out the tray and transfer them to a wire rack to cool down. Be sure to let them cool for a while before slicing otherwise they may collapse.

TO COOK YOUR MACKEREL

Fry your Mackerel in butter in batches of 3 or 4, until they are just brown. Placing them on a baking tray on low heat in the oven until you have finished cooking all of your fish.

Finally, slice your buns, butter them and place a butterflied fish in each roll, I like to add mayonnaise, and serve in a tray with some lemons to squeeze.

Bon Appétit!

*Heading and gutting - not for the squeamish, you may be able to ask someone else to do this in part exchange for making the brioche buns….Do use a very sharp knife, ideally a filleting knife, but failing that a very sharp one. I like to do this outside, on the deck or close to the sea so that you can throw the scraps straight back for the seagulls or hungry harbour seals. Have the fish in a bucket of seawater, and have a chopping board, two empty mixing bowls, a roll of kitchen paper and optionally disposable gloves. I personally do like to wear these, as the smell of mackerel really does get under your skin and my boyfriend hates fish so gloves that you can throw away are a good option. Okay… so, the best way to kill a mackerel is to hit it once over the head quite hard, it will die straight away. Then, hold it firmly behind the gills and chop its head off. Throw the head straight into the sea, then using a very sharp knife, cut with the knife at 45 degrees to the skin along the belly towards the tail. Pull out all of the intestines in one movement and throw them straight into the sea. Dip your fish in the bucket of seawater and then place it in one of the mixing bowls. If you are doing quite a few mackerel, around a dozen, you may want the second bowl for putting heads and guts in to keep it tidy, so that you can throw it in the sea in one go. Do use the kitchen roll to wipe up after each one, and clean the knife regularly. When you are finished you should just have 12 clean mackerel bodies to take inside without getting any mess or the smell of fish guts into the house. Once you manage this you will feel quite smug. You can then place your fish in a Tupperware in the fridge overnight. If you are making these for lunch, you can start the brioche in the morning, whilst everyone else eats breakfast.

From the Galley- Fried Fresh Mackerel Brioche Buns