Sea & shore

With ingredients caught from the sea and harvested from the land, these recipes are designed to put you in a holiday mood

- ANDRÉA CHILDS

Seared mackerel with a quick pickle & crispy capers 
SERVES 6

Ask your fishmonger to butterfly-cut your fish for you and they will remove the bones, leaving the tail attached. It will keep the fish intact as it cooks and looks striking when served.

1 To fry the capers, first make sure you have drained them and dried them on a towel. Heat up a small pan of rapeseed oil to 180°C and drop the capers into the oil. They should sizzle and pop open like little flower buds. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and dry on a tray with a cloth.

2 Peel the shallots and carrots, wash the radishes, then slice the shallots into thin rounds, the carrots on an angle and the radishes into half-moons, all as thinly as you can, with a knife.

3 For your pickling liquor combine all the ingredients and bring to the boil to infuse. Pass the liquor through a finemesh sieve and pour over the shallots, carrots and radishes - it should just cover the top. The liquor needs to be near boiling. Once cool, strain, remove the vegetables from the pickling liquor and place the veg into a mixing bowl.

4 Heat a non-stick pan and season the mackerel with salt, pepper and rapeseed oil. Oil the hot pan and place the mackerel in away from yourself, skin-side down, and press the flesh of the fish down for the first 10 seconds to stop it curling up. Cooking time will depend on the size of the fish. For a medium butterflied mackerel, it should take around 3 minutes, skin-side down, 2 minutes on the other side. Remove pan from the heat. It will finish cooking in the pan in the residual heat while you finish the salad.