Yorkshire's Independent Restaurant Guide

North Sea Mackerel with Wild Garlic and Nettle Stew

In the summer, the York Food Festival welcomed Christopher Trotter, Fife’s Food Ambassador, to demonstrate dishes from his book The Whole Cow. He’s equally versatile at cooking fish and has provided us with this simple recipe using North Sea mackerel, wild garlic and nettle shoots, ingredients equally available in Yorkshire as Scotland.

Ingredients:

2 medium onions, chopped
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp turmeric
3 cloves garlic, crushed
900g potatoes, diced
2 tsp sultanas
1 tbsp chopped parsley
handful nettles, washed and chopped
4 mackerel

Method:

Fry the onions gently in a pan with the oil until soft, stir in the turmeric and garlic.
Add the diced potatoes and stir to heat through, stir in the sultanas and add enough cold water to come half way up, stir in the nettles and simmer until just cooked, sprinkle in the chopped parsley

Grill the fish and serve on a bed of the potato and nettle mixture.

Christopher Trotter, he has recently teamed up with Sarah Mellersh at her Let’s Cook Scotland cookery school in Abernethy in Perthshire. A lovely part of the world and a good place to combine cooking with a few days away.