Mackerel

Many fish go by the name of mackerel in English. Do a search on an internet search engine and you will see. The one I am talking about apparently goes by the scientific name of Trachurus trachurus, and in English is better referred to as (Atlantic) horse mackerel.

It does not seem to be a highly regarded fish anywhere in the world, and in some countries it is even only used as bait. However, in Japan, where it is called aji, it is used in sushi, although I would guess that nowhere else you will be able to find horse mackerel on sushi plate.

Here, it is highly consumed, although no-one will tell you that it is a fish reserved for special occasions only. On the good side, it is cheap, and it does not seem to be an endangered species. It is usually grilled if it is on the larger side, and dipped in flour and fried if it is smallish. I like it in any circumstance.

Can one do something more elaborate with it? Apparently one can: some sort of tartare that involves ginger, marinated with lemony flavours - but it is no foie gras, mind you.

We decided to buy a kilo and to do something with it:

Busy II

Here's a visual update of how things are moving along:

Friends

We had a couple of Spanish friends visiting us. Actually, the purpose (or rather, the excuse) of the trip was work, but we could squeeze in a bit of fun here and there, and one always has to eat, doesn't one?

Contrary to what usually happens when foreign friends visit us, they were the ones doing the cooking: tortilla de patatas in one day, paella in the other. Both dishes were truly outstanding, but the paella won the first place of the podium. Take a look for yourself:

Mussels

If you have acess to fresh mussels, hurry up and go buy at least a kilo: this recipe is so easy and so tasty that it's almost unfair. We are talking about mussels Valencia style. If you visit Valencia and taste these mussels, you are most likely to eat clotxinas, a smallish version of the regular mussel that lives in the Mediterranean sea. In any event, the recipes you get if you google "mejillones a la Valenciana" seem a bit off to us. Please don't add any salt, and fry the garlic in a bit of olive oil before adding the mussels and the lemon.

Proceed as follows: scrub the mussels clean with the help of a knife and get rid of the beard: just pull it out in a swift movement. Leave them inside the fridge for a couple of hours in bowl with clean water and about a tablespoon of salt . The idea is to help the mussels get rid of any sand they have inside the shells, but nowadays this is not as important as it was in the past because of the depuration process all shellfish has to undergo. When you're ready to start cooking, get a heavy pan, we recommend a 26 cm Le Creuset, and cover its bottom with a slug of olive oil. Fry 3 cloves of coarsely chopped garlic until golden. Then add a quartered lemon and the mussels. Turn the heat to medium high and cover the pan. Shake the pot now and then to help the shellfish move around. Once all the mussels have opened, turn of the heat. It's very important not to overcook as most of the pleasure comes from the texture of the mussels, and that is gone if they are overcooked and dried out.

Add coarsely chopped parley, squeeze the lemon quarters a bit, and serve with a lemony crisp white wine and slices of crusty bread. Use the shells to scoop out the sauce, it's devine.

We were so eager to eat it that we forgot to take a picture. These are the leftovers. Ah, the wine was a txakoli, a simple fresh white wine from the basque country...

Sophisticated food

As long as it's piled up on a large white plate, it's sprinkled with freshly ground pepper, decorated with a few Pollock-influenced lines of sauce, and perhaps some fleur de sel, it's bound to look sophisticated and "creative." We have fallen into that trap:

Boiled potatoes, blanched snow peas, white asparagus straight out of a can, two anchovies and a poached egg. It actually came out very tasty, and it does look quite nice...