Smoked mackerel salad with horseradish dressing

Smoked mackerel salad with horseradish dressing

Smoked mackerel salad with chicory, fennel, new potatoes and a creamy horseradish dressing

I love this salad. It’s a salad that will excite and enthuse even the most unenthusiastic of salad fans. The slight bitterness of the chicory, the delicate aniseed flavour of the fennel and of course the horseradish all work in combination to really make this mackerel shine. 

Perfect as a substantial lunch, a light dinner or take out the new potatoes and you also have yourself a wonderful starter.

Ingredients

ingredients to serve 4,

4 fillets of Orkney Rose smoked mackerel, left whole
1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
4 heads of chicory, with the leaves left whole
250g radish, cut into slices
400-500g baby new potatoes, cut in half or left whole
extra virgin olive oil
handful of dill

for the creamy horseradish dressing

125g thick plain yoghurt or crème fraiche
1tbsp creamed horseradish
2tbsps lemon juice
1 garlic clove

Preparation

To make the horseradish dressing, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk together with a little black pepper to taste. Cover and leave for 15 minutes.

Put the potatoes in a saucepan of cold slightly salted water, then bring to the boil, reduce the heat and let simmer for 12-15 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a sharp knife.

Place the sliced fennel, chicory leaves and radish slices into a bowl and toss with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and freshly ground pepper.

Now, as the potatoes are cooking, lay out 4 plates and begin plating up with the salad ingredients, making sure that each plate gets an even amount of each ingredient.

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and toss with a little olive oil, a handful of chopped dill and some salt and pepper. Add these to the fennel, chicory and radish and then lay across the fillet of smoked mackerel.

Either drizzle a small amount of the horseradish dressing over the salad or serve it in little ramekins on the side of each plate. Sprinkle the dish with some dill and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Serve immediately.

7am, Friday 7 December, 2007

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