Baked Mackerel with Vegetables on a Clay Platter — Easy Oven Recipe

Name: Baked Mackerel with Vegetables on a Clay Platter — Easy Oven Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 60 min
Yield: 1
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Mackerel 1; Tomato 1; Garlic (young) 1 head; Young zucchini 1; Onion (or a handful of pearl onions) 1; Olive oil 3 tbsp; Coriander, black and red peppercorns, allspice, dried aromatic herbs (savory, oregano, basil), salt, lemon to taste

This time my mackerel baked with vegetables came out really delicious. I have always been drawn to cooking methods that are simple, need no special skills and, most importantly, don't take much time. I don't mean the kind of “cooking” that comes down to adding hot water — that's complete nonsense, especially when we're told it's healthy and tasty.

You'd think the simplest breakfast is fried eggs made from three eggs. A pan, a little oil, eggs, spices. And yet some people manage to ruin even that. An acquaintance of mine once ended up in the burn unit with a broken arm after making fried eggs… A scary story.

Making soup in the morning is fairly hard if you're not used to it. And yet, oddly enough, cooking chicken soup is much easier than frying potatoes. Baking mackerel in the oven, grilling it, or stuffing mackerel — takes 10 minutes of hands-on time at most, not counting the cooking itself. Many people don't believe it. Until they try.

There is another simple method that, by and large, is hardly harder than frying eggs: baking vegetables, fish or meat in the oven on a ceramic or any other ovenproof dish.

Baking is a technique as old as the world. And sadly it gets unfairly overlooked in favor of frying in oil or grilling. That's a big mistake.

Ceramic or clay pans (baking dishes, platters) are common in kitchens all over the world. For example, the Georgian clay (or stone) ketsi pan is perfect for baking. In the Balkans clay cookware is everywhere and inexpensive. Cooking in it is easy and the dish is hard to spoil. Besides, food doesn't burn in clay unless you really try.

A small ceramic baking dish, or platter as it's often called, is affordable and sold everywhere. Just grease it with a little fat, lay out the food and put it in a wood-fired oven or a regular one. The result — say, a delicious mackerel baked with vegetables — and success is guaranteed!

Ingredients

1 serving

Mackerel 1
Tomato 1
Garlic (young) 1 head
Young zucchini 1
Onion (or a handful of pearl onions) 1
Olive oil 3 tbsp
Coriander, black and red peppercorns, allspice, dried aromatic herbs (savory, oregano, basil), salt, lemon to taste

Step-by-step recipe

To make mackerel baked with vegetables, first thaw the mackerel. Better not at room temperature: move it from the freezer to the fridge in the evening, and by morning the fish will be ready to cook. Cut off the fins with sharp scissors. Slit the belly and remove all the innards. Under running water, clean the cavity completely of the black membrane and any remaining innards. Remove the gills without cutting off the head.
In a mortar, mix equal parts salt, mixed peppercorns, dried aromatic herbs and coriander. Add 1-2 allspice berries and grind. Sprinkle the mackerel cavity with the spice mix to taste. If some mix is left over, it will keep nicely until next time — in my opinion it's great for fish in general. Sprinkle the cavity with lemon juice — just a little, 1 tsp of juice at most.
Make a few shallow diagonal cuts on the sides of the fish, just through the skin. Rub the spices over the outside of the fish.
Peel the onion. If the onions are small pearl onions, just peel them and use whole. Cut a regular onion into strips. Separate the young (older is fine too) garlic into cloves without peeling them. Toss the onion and garlic with 1 tsp of olive oil so they're coated in a thin film of oil.
Without peeling, cut the young zucchini into rounds or wedges about 2 cm thick. Season with salt and pepper. Then drizzle with 1 tsp of olive oil and toss.
Cut the tomato into wedges and salt it. You can add a little pepper to taste. No need to peel or seed it.
Grease the clay baking dish (platter) with olive oil. Lay a row of very thin lemon slices down the center. They keep the fish from sticking to the platter while it cooks.
Place the fish on the lemon slices. It's fine if the head and tail stick out past the edges of the platter. Baked mackerel cooks not from contact with a hot surface but from the heat of the oven.
Arrange the prepared vegetables around the mackerel: zucchini, tomato, onion, garlic. Drizzle the mackerel with the remaining olive oil, trying to cover it evenly without missing any spots.
Place in an oven preheated to 190-200 °C. The mackerel bakes for roughly 40-45 mins. Keep an eye on how things are cooking. One important point: the garlic skins may darken and start to char. If that happens, just turn the cloves over. Cooking time can vary from one time to the next. For me, 45 mins in the oven baked the mackerel perfectly, the zucchini was soft and tender, and the little onions were sweet and well roasted.
Mackerel baked with vegetables is usually served on the same platter it was cooked on. You can garnish it with a few herbs.
If you like, you can transfer the fish and vegetables to a plate, but mackerel baked with vegetables looks best right on the platter.