Mackerel tostadas by Valentine Warner
Serves 6.
- or 8g of Chile Chipotle Diced,
2 generous tsp tomato paste
A pinch of ground cumin
2 tsp cider vinegar
6 generous dessertspoons basic mayonnaise (posh is not what you want here)
1 large ripe Hass avocado (peeled & roughly diced)
Juice of 1 lime
A small handful of coriander leaves (chopped)
Flaked sea salt
6 x Frying Corn Tortillas (10cm)
Sunflower oil (for frying)
1 medium red onion (halved and very thinly sliced)
300g very fresh mackerel (filleted, deskinned and pin-boned)
Small pinch of Mexican Oregano
Coriander leaves (for garnishing)
Cut the stalk from the Chile Chipotles, open them up and remove the seeds (or measure out the Chile Chipotle dice). Cover chillies in just enough boiled water to cover them and leave to rehydrate for at least 15mins. Drain and discard the water and put rehydrated chillies into a blender (if using Chipotles in Adobo put these in now). Blend chillies to a pureé with the cider vinegar, tomato paste, cumin and mayonnaise. The cumin should only be the faintest suggestion, not over whelming and the mayonnaise might need loosening with a little water first. The finished consistency should easily dollop off a spoon and not be too stiff. This will make more mayonnaise than you need, but can be used on any other dishes you would normally eat with mayo, now they will have a Mexican twist!
Mash the avocado with the lime juice and the coriander then season well with salt and leave to one side.
Heat a pan with 5cm sunflower oil until it is 180°C. Fry the tortillas in it for about 40 seconds on each side until a rich gold then drain on paper towel. Your fried tortilla is now a tostada.
Now fry the onion slices in the oil for 6 minutes, stirring every now and again until they are golden brown all over.
Transfer them quickly to some paper towel to drain and crisp up.
Slice the mackerel thinly (about 3mm) across the grain of the fish, as you would smoked salmon.
To assemble:
Take 6 plates and lay a tostada on each one. Smear a good dessertspoon of the avocado mixture evenly over each tostada. It should not be a mean scraping. Lay 3-4 slices mackerel on top, slightly overlapping the pieces. Season the raw mackerel with a good pinch of flaky sea salt. Artfully dribble a couple of teaspoons of the chipotle mayonnaise over the fish. Sprinkle over some of the crispy onions followed by a tiny pinch of dried Mexican oregano. Finish with a few pert coriander leaves. When assembling this, remember that every bite should be the sum of all parts.
Eat immediately, outside, with a bottle of ice-cold beer.