Surf and turf salad? Well, I had to call it something... Last night we were running a bit short on carnivore supplies, all we had was a bag of frozen mackerel fillets and a pack of greenback bacon. Having been hit with the latest version of office flu, going to the shop wasn't really an option.
Oh, what to do? Since we always have so much greens and veg at home after jumping on the paleo bandwagon yet another kick-ass salad sounded like a good option. Wait, mackerel and bacon in a salad, I hear you think... Yes! Who dares wins! And with the dressing described below, this is a winner.
The dressing is inspired by the "fish fragrant aubergines" recipe that turned out to work so well with our pan fried herring spicy style, so this isn't conjured up completely from thin air...
Ingredients (stuffs two hungry paleoites)
6 rashers of bacon, fried and chopped
4 fillets of mackerel, baked and shredded
1 bag of rocket (your bag size may vary... use enough for two!)
1 bag of spinach
2 romano peppers, chopped
1 leek, sliced
10 radishes, sliced
1/2 cucumber, sliced
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
For the dressing:
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 thumb sized ginger, grated
1 red chilli, finely chopped
4 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp honey
1 tsp soy sauce
juice of 2 limes
salt and pepper to taste
top up with olive oil to taste
If I had had some coriander I'd have chopped that up and added to the salad as well, but no such luck in our flu challenged kitchen larder.
Method
Put your oven to grill, put some olive oil on the mackerel fillets and place them skin side down on a tray (juices and oils will come off, so make sure it can hold it lest you get funky residue in your oven...).
Season with salt and pepper, then bake in the oven for 7 minutes, turn them so skin side is up (you want that skin to go crispy), season a bit more and bake for another 10-12 minutes or until skin starts looking a bit charred. We did these from frozen, so your cooking time may be different.
Meanwhile:
Fry and cut the bacon in strips. Leave to cool a bit.
Cut up all the veg that needs chopping using your best salad style knife skills, add all leaves and veg to your salad bowl.
Mix all the dressing components together in a small jug.
When the mackerel is done, shred it or cut it up in strips across the fillet. Place the bacon and mackerel on top of the veg, pour the aromatic dressing over it and mix it all up.
Serve, enjoy.
