Wood fired mackerel on fennel and tomato
There were a couple of firsts when we cooked this dish in the DeliVita pizza oven on one of the live cooks. It was the first time I had deboned a mackerel while keeping the fillets attached to each other, and it was the first time I had cooked fish in the wood-fired oven. Both went perfectly and I really enjoyed cooking it.
The pizza oven blistered the fish skin, exactly what I was after. However, you could do this quite easily in a Big Green Egg.
The recipe for the fennel and tomato is borrowed from Mark’s excellent website Smoked Fine Food. Mark slow roasts the fennel, we ‘nuke’ it. I like both results.
Cooking surfaces
BBQ Temperature
Ingredients
- 2 mackerel, buy fillets if you don’t want to fillet them yourself.
- 1 bulb of fennel
- 4 or 5 plum tomatoes
- Maldon salt
- Black pepper, coarsely ground
- 4 tbsp olive oil
Equipment
- I used the DeliVita wood fired oven.
- You could use your Egg though with a 5-piece Eggspander system.
Method
- Slice your fennel into 7mm thick slices, cutting the fennel vertically from top to bottom. I leave on the green wispy top.
- Cut your tomatoes into 7mm thick slices.
- Set up your pizza oven or Egg to cook at 220°C or hotter for the pizza oven.
- If you’re cooking on the Egg set it up for an indirect cook in a cast iron skillet.
- Place your fennel into your baking dish or skillet, drizzle with 2-3 tbsp of olive oil and pop into the pizza oven or Egg.
- Cook for about 5 minutes before turning. You’re looking for some caramelisation of the fennel.
- Cook for a further 5 minutes and then add the slices of tomato, salt and pepper.
- Cook for 5 more minutes until the tomatoes soften.
- Now oil your fish skin and cook your mackerel either:
- on top of the veg in the pizza oven, skin side up until it blisters and the mackerel is cooked through (over 63°C internal temp).
- or on a stainless grid, skin side down until it is cooked.
- Serve on the fennel and tomato with black pepper to season.
