The combination of tender fish, aromatic vegetables and herbs has been attracting the best cooks and ordinary housewives since ancient times. Cooking such dishes is not difficult, and the result is always positive. Baked mackerel with vegetables is a prime example. Tasty in itself, moderately oily, this fish goes well with the tender flesh of baked vegetables, and most seasonings are combined with its rich taste. Many peoples of the world consider this dish to be their own, presenting it in the best restaurants of national cuisine. But you can cook this wonderful dish at home, and even in the country or in the woods. And by the way, there are not so many recipes that can be found on the menu of expensive establishments, as well as in the diet of tent vacationers. One of these dishes, of course, is baked mackerel with vegetables. This recipe is far from young, and today is experiencing another peak of its popularity. We will understand all the details and subtleties to prepare this delicious and fragrant dish for the next holiday.
Choose a fish
All types of mackerel are suitable for baking. It is believed that the larger the fish, the fatter it is. Perhaps for a common, ubiquitous mackerel, this rule works. But it does not apply to particularly large breeds, representatives of which weigh 1 kilogram or more. Their flesh is just too dry. This is not a disadvantage, on the contrary - it allows everyone to choose what they like.
Suitable vegetables and their combination
Typically, mackerel is stuffed with tomatoes, carrots, onions, zucchini and eggplant, slices of cauliflower. Corn kernels, turnips, potatoes, pumpkin are suitable.
Very interesting effects can be achieved by picking vegetables by color. For example, stuff fish with a mixture of slices of zucchini, leek, spinach, green bell pepper, peas, greens. Mackerel baked with red vegetables looks very impressive, especially if you sprinkle it with paprika on top. But the multi-colored mixture of fruits looks festive and elegant, and the taste and aroma will not leave anyone indifferent.
It is important that most vegetables take longer to cook than the tender flesh of a fish. Therefore, it is advisable to fry the diced cubes in a pan until half cooked. In a vegetable mixture, you can add adjika, ghee, salsa sauce, chopped garlic or young green onions.
Pre pickling
Baked mackerel stuffed with vegetables will reveal all its tastes if it is pre-marinated. For this purpose, vinegar is categorically not suitable. Instead, it is better to take white wine, soy sauce, yogurt or tomato juice. Lemon fits very well with this fish, you can put it just by slicing it into slices. Vegetables intended for joint baking can be pickled with fish, so that all the smells are mixed into one flavor. Do not forget about herbs: rosemary, thyme, parsley, watercress.
Mackerel with vegetables in the oven
There are many ways to bake. For example, you can put fish stuffed with a vegetable mixture on deco. At the end of cooking, you can briefly turn on the grill - this will provide a golden brown. The foil produces a very tender and juicy mackerel stuffed with vegetables. In the oven, you can cook several servings at a time by spreading the fish carcasses on a large baking sheet.
In order for the dish to be fully cooked, it is enough to bake it in the oven for about an hour, at a temperature of 150-170 degrees.
Picnic Delicacy
Mackerel baked with vegetables in a fire or on the grill - this is a real treat! You can bake a fish over a weak bonfire on a special grill, or you can bury it completely in hot coals. For the second cooking method, it is worth stocking up with foil, in which the carcasses are wrapped in several layers.
Serving to the table
Rosy carcasses are beautiful in their own right. But real aesthetes from cooking will certainly lay them out on porcelain or earthenware plates, decorate with lime slices, sprigs of fresh herbs, slices of olives. Homemade pickles and seasonal vegetables are in perfect harmony with this dish. Spectacular contrast can be created using sliced cucumber, violet Crimean onion rings, mustard seeds, capers.
Usually, there is no need for additional garnishing, because the vegetable mixture is quite capable of this role. Baked mackerel with vegetables may well be supplemented with mashed potatoes, boiled rice without oil, pasta, bulgur.
White table wine, brut, vermouth is well suited to this fish. It is perfectly acceptable to serve such a dish with high-strength alcohol - vodka or cognac. Non-alcoholic drinks can offer guests chilled green tea, apple or orange juice, tomato, non-carbonated homemade lemonade.
Serve the table with special knives and fish forks.