Today's Special: Smoked Mackerel, Grapefruit & Orange Salad

One of the greatest dilemmas of modern life for me, especially with the fast array of foods we fortunately have readily available, is; “what are we going to eat tonight?”

Trying to shop locally, rather than from supermarkets, I believe you can actually save money if you buy just what you need; thereby avoiding waste, and you can have a much more pleasant time doing it.

However, buying what-you-need-that-day does need a little planning; with no room in your bag or budget for those 'just in case' items.

I am setting my self a challenge, each workday weekday I will attempt to post a tried and tested quick supper idea, the ingredients of which you can pick up during your lunch hour or on you way home. I wonder how many I will manage?

This is what we ate last night.

Peppered Smoked Mackerel Salad with Grapefruit & Orange

This simple salad can literally be prepared in seconds and is as nutritious as it is delicious. 

For two people you will need: 

• 4 medium peppered smoked mackerel fillets (I allow 2 fillets per person), you must use the peppered variety for  a fulsome flavour that really compliments the citrus.
• A couple of handfuls of watercress, baby leaf spinach or rocket or any  combination thereof.
• A grapefruit, I use the slightly sweeter pink variety.
• An orange.
• Nothing else – honestly!

Method:

• Place  you salad leaves in a bowl.
• Remove the silver skin from the fish. If you start at  the tail end by breaking off the tip you should be able to pull the skin away  in one piece. This should be discarded.
• Flake  the fish over the leaves and mix in. The salad will pick up the oil from the  fish negating the need for dressing.
• Peel and break into pieces a juicy pink grapefruit, being careful to catch any pips. Do this over the bowl so no juice is lost.
• Do the same with a very juicy orange.

Toss the salad et voilà.

NB. Those of us of a certain age will remember hotel dining rooms and the breakfasts of our childhoods of half a grapefruit, usually covered with white sugar, and an instrument of torture with which one prised the fruit from the pith and peel. These grapefruit knives are as hard to come by now as candlewick bedspreads. We have them in stock just click on the image below.