Every Spring and Fall, the Spanish Mackeral make their bi-annual pass through the waters of Tampa Bay in their migratory cycle. To me, that means great days fishing, and better yet, wonderful meals. Most people think of mackeral as a "strong" fish, but with proper handling at the time of catching, a deft hand cleaning the filets, and some simple techniques, mackeral does not have to be relagated to just the smoker.

James Peterson's books, all of them, I consider invaluable, and you will find links to most of them on the Library Page. I loaned this one to a friend recently, who was asking about a cookbook to learn some basics from. While thumbing through it, I saw a mention of mackeral and mustard. So without really following the recipe, I took the idea, and adapted it to my Spanish Mackeral.

I took the filets out of the freezer (I read on a fishing forum a great method of using a vacuum sealer immediately after bringing the filets home, and it worked wonderfully, see my description at my Tools Page. I brush a tablespoon or two of dijon on each filet some, crack some white pepper on each filet, and sprinkle with panko (Japanese Breadcrumb). Just enough to coat the top of the filet and mustard. I then lightly rub some butter on the bottom of a baking dish, add the filets, and add some white wine to the pan. Just enough to help keep the filets moist while in the oven. Bake in the oven a few minutes at around 350 degrees, and then finish under the broiler to to brown the panko. Mackeral filets tend to be thin, so total cooking time really shouldn't be more than 10 minutes.

For this dish, I cooked basmati rice pilaf (I gave the rice its own post) and sauteed fresh spinach. For the spinach, I assumed I stll had a bottle of Anisette in the cabinet, however I discovered I had used it all up. So I ground up some fennel seed in my spice grinder, and added that to the olive oil I sauteed the spinach in. Get the oil hot, throw in the fresh spinach (keep in mind, 1 bag of spinach will cook down to almost nothing, so depending on how many you are cooking for, you may need a second bag or bundle).

Another note about the spinach. I usually buy the "triple washed" spinach, and just pull the big stems off the leaves. However, if the bunches of fresh spinach are available, I have a hard time passing it over. In that case, Strip the stems off (I just kinda hold the end of the stem, and pull upward toward the tip of the leaf. That tends to pull the thick part of the stem out of the leaf as well), and soak thoroughly, and spin in a greens spinner. When ever you soak fresh greens of any sort (watercress, arugula especially tend to be gritty), you never want to soak the green, and then just dump over a strainer. The grit settles to the bottom of the bowl, and if you dump into strainer, you are simply pouring the grit back over the greens. Lift out the greens into the spinner, and leave the sand behind!

Once the oil is hot, throw the cleaned spinach in, quickly tossing around, if you have the anisette or Pernod, now would be a good time to add a big splash, and lower the heat. The spinach will wilt quickly, season with kosher salt and pepper, and perhaps add a pat of butter. Remove from heat. I laid the spinach down and topped with the mackeral a nice scoop of rice pilaf, maybe a wheat beer or an Alastian Reisling, and another lovely dinner. Enjoy!