I’m SO behind on posting recipes at the moment – this was supposed to be up weeks ago. But better late than never, as they say! This dish is a quick, nutritious and tasty dinner (or lunch), and it uses really cheap ingredients too. Mackerel is one of my favourite fish: it’s versatile and super tasty, and it’s one of the cheapest fish you’ll find on the supermarket shelves!

Serves two.

Ingredients

• 2 fillets of mackerel
• 2cm piece of fresh root ginger
• juice of half a lime
• as much chilli as you fancy
• 2-3 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 carrots
• 2 spring onions
• handful fresh coriander, chopped
• 2-3 cups of rice, whatever type you like (I used a combination of long grain and wild rice, but Thai Jasmine rice would probably have worked better)

Method

Boil the kettle for the rice and follow the instructions on the packet for how long to cook it. It normally takes around 20-25 minutes depending on the kind of rice you use.

To make the marinade, combine the soy sauce, lime juice and chilli in a bowl. Add the ginger by either finely grating it in (this works especially well if the root has been in the freezer, which, coincidentally, is one of my top cooking tips) or dicing it into small pieces. Cut each mackerel fillet in half and add to the marinade. Make sure all the pieces are covered and leave to soak in all that tasty goodness while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Chop the carrots into thin sticks and slice the spring onions into small pieces. The spring onions and coriander will be sprinkled over the top once everything’s cooked and plated.

Once the fish has been marinating for at least 5 minutes, heat a drizzle of oil in a frying pan. Add the carrots to the pan and stir fry for a few minutes. Place the mackerel skin-down in the pan and cook for a couple of minutes before adding the marinade to the pan. Let everything simmer for a couple of minutes, turning the fish over part way through. Take the pan off the heat.

Test the rice. If it’s cooked, you can start plating. Add the rice to the plate and then the fish. Pour on the sauce and scatter the spring onions and chopped coriander over the top.