Baked Mackerel with Wild Flavours is a traditional British recipe for a dish of mackerel baked in dock or burdock leaves with wild flavourings. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Baked Mackerel with Wild Flavours.
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I needed some baked mackerel to make a mackerel and seaweed pâté. Being late May and living fairly close to the beach I decided to go foraging for wild ingredients to flavour the mackerel and large leaves (curly dock or burdock) to act as wrappings so the fish partly steamed to keep it moist.
Ingredients:
2 mackerel
several curly dock or burdock leaves for wrapping
several sprigs of sea arrowgrass (coriander grass)
2 sprays of elderflowers
a generous bunch of wild grass flower stems
4 tbsp primrose mead (or sweet white wine)
a few sprigs of fennel
a few leaves of Scots lovage
Method:
As an example of how to bake the mackerel, I collected 6 differing sized burdock leaves, a good handful of wild grass, fresh elderflowers and used some sea arrowgrass that I picked up while in Cumbria earlier in the week; sea arrowgrass is similar in flavour/fragrance to coriander, with hints of lemongrass and green grasses.
I washed the burdock leaves and fitted them in a deep metal roasting tin, laid dampened grass on top, followed by fresh elderflower sprays, I placed the cleaned/gutted mackerel on top, making three deep buts in both sides of the fish and filled those with sections of sea arrowgrass, I also filled the belly cavity with crushed sea arrowgrass and fresh elderflowers. I poured on some primrose mead, scattered some wild Scots lovage & fennel on top and then covered the fish with the same herbs but in reverse, enclosing it all with the remaining burdock leaves. I popped it into a pre-heated oven at 180°C and baked them for approx 30 minutes.
