Spiced Pickled Mackerel

⏳ Time

1 hour + 1 day

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

The simplest recipe I will describe quickly and easily. Last time I prepared 2 mackerels, both of which were large, but I proportionally reduced all the other ingredients in the dish.

Ingredients

Canned Mackerel in Oil - 3 pieces
Onion - 3 pieces
Garlic - 3 cloves
Sugar - 1 teaspoon
Salt - 1 tablespoon
Vinegar essence - 3 tablespoons
Vegetable Oil - 2 tablespoons
Bay leaf - 2 pieces
Lemon-Pepper Mix - to taste

Step by Step guide

Step 1

With the pepper, I think every cook will decide according to their taste. I settled on this ratio: I use both allspice berries (not black, but allspice!) and ground pepper mix. Regarding the vinegar, I rarely say this, but for this recipe, I would use regular table vinegar or apple cider vinegar. In my opinion, wine, balsamic, and other fine vinegars really change the flavor. And as we know, it's better to change the flavor when we already know the classic way of preparing the dish. And just a couple of words about the oil. In the list of ingredients, I wrote concisely — 'vegetable oil' because you can use any kind you like. I prefer olive oil — thick, bright yellow, with a characteristic taste and aroma. If desired, you can add a little lemon juice to the olive oil.

Step 2

Start timing. Let's begin with the fish. Attention — all manipulations should be done with frozen fish! You can thaw it slightly at room temperature, just enough to be able to cut it. With thawed fish, you'll encounter the usual problem — the pieces will fall apart and become ragged and uneven. I cut the onion into rings and the garlic into slices.

Step 3

Now we place all the chopped mackerel, onion, garlic, and all the spices into a large bowl and mix very gently. Done! All that's left is to distribute it into jars. I ended up with 1 jar, which is in the photo, and another one — slightly larger. We place these jars in the refrigerator for 1 day. I shook the jars a couple of times during the time they were in the refrigerator.

Step 4

And when after a day you take out a piece of pickled mackerel and taste it, you definitely won't be able to stop — it's indescribably delicious! The taste is tender, without pronounced accents (these accents can be adjusted according to your preferences: a bit more pepper, special spices, fragrant herbs, etc.)