Mackerel Poached in Wine

Here's an easy way to cook mackerel that doesn't leave a smell lingering for days.

You need:

A couple of Mackerels - must be filleted
1 Red Onion.
1 clove of Garlic.
A piece of ginger - about the size of your thumb.
White Wine - good enough to drink.
Olive Oil

Slice the onion up fairly coarsely. Slice the garlic up as finely as you can manage and chop up the ginger. Add them to a nice big frying pan with a generous dose olive oil and fry them very very gently until the onion looks softened and caramelised.

When they look done take the pan off the heat and add a little white wine, then place the mackerel fillets in the pan and add more wine until it's almost, but not quite covering them.

Place the pan back on a gentle heat and let them poach for about 5-10 minutes. It'll depend on you pan, cooker etc so just take them out when they look done.

When you remove the fish leave the remaining wine, onions etc in the pan and wack the heat right up to boil the wine off leaving you with a kind of winey, onion jam type stuff - you still want it to be slightly liquid, don't let it burn! When it looks reduced enough turn off the heat and pour it over the fish.

This is quite rich in flavour so it goes really well with something mild like mash potatoes.

The mackerel has to be really fresh - make sure the eyes are clear, NOT cloudy, and the skin taught and shiny. If you don't know how to fillet one it's easy to learn from a book (you need something with pictures) so long as you've got a really sharp knife.

Oh and drink the rest of the wine!