Mackerel rillettes are really easy to make and a lot less calorific than you would expect. Served with traditional Irish soda bread, they make an elegant starter for a decadent summer party or a swanky aperitif.

Rillettes of mackerel on toasted Irish Soda bread – by Michel Roux Jr

Ingredients:

To prepare the rillettes:

  • 1kg (or 6 fillets) of deboned mackerel
  • 1 bunch of chopped chives
  • ½ bunch of chopped flat parsley
  • 1 lemon (for the juice and zest)
  • 200g crème fraiche
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • A drizzle of olive oil

To prepare the Escabeche:

  • 1 spring onion
  • 1 carrot
  • 400ml white wine
  • 50ml white wine vinegar
  • 50ml water
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tsp crushed black peppercorn

To prepare the Irish Soda bread:

  • 200g wholemeal flour
  • 200g plain white flour
  • 50g porridge oats
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate
  • 1 tsp Sea salt
  • 1 whole egg
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 350ml buttermilk

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 200 C – (Can be made beforehand)
  2. Mix together both flours, oats, bicarbonate, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, and honey. Incorporate the liquid mix into the dry one using your hands to form a soft dough.
  3. This bread doesn’t need proofing; place directly into a greased loaf tin and bake for 45 to 50 minutes.

To prepare the Escabeche:

  1. Halve the fillets of mackerel lengthwise and place them flesh side down into a shallow dish.
  2. Peel and dice the spring onion and carrot into a brunoise (2mm cubes). Then place all of the ingredients, including the diced veggies into a pot and bring to the boil.
  3. After 2 minutes of boiling, pour the liquid over the filets of mackerel and seal the shallow dish with cling film. Leave the fish to cook and marinate until the liquid has completely cooled down. Separate the fillets from the liquid (without discarding) and remove the skin of the fish.
  4. Using a fork combine the mackerel flesh with olive oil, crème fraiche, lemon juice and mustard. If this mixture is too compact, add some of the escabeche liquid until you achieve the perfect rillettes texture. Finally, season to taste with salt, pepper, chopped herbs, the crunchy diced veggies and lemon zest.
  5. Slice thick wedges of Irish soda bread and place under the grill until beautifully toasted. Then spread the mackerel rillettes to your heart’s content.

See more Michel Roux Jr recipes

Matching Wines

Black Cottage Sauvignon Blanc 2016 – A bright, citrusy wine from the maker of “Two Rivers” wines. This wine is pleasingly dry and medium bodied, with a wonderful gooseberry finish and a touch of lychee and passionfruit on the palate. Its gently refreshing nature makes this wine perfect to cut through rich, smoky fish such as mackerel.

RRP UK: £11.99 from Majestic Wine

Hamilton Russel’s 2015 Chardonnay – A composed nose with great minerality, length and complexity typical of Hamilton Russell Vineyards. This wine has great volume in the mouth, with touches of almond saturated with citrus and pear fruits. Gaining intensity with aeration, this wine is suitably complex to break through the creaminess of the rillettes.

RRP UK: £27.00 from Majestic Wine

RRP USA: $22.89 from Wine Library

Champagne Taittinger 2008 – A deliciously creamy, rich 50/50 blend of Chardonnay and Pinor Noir with an intense palate. Flinty notes at first, which gives way to an intense, plummy fruitiness. This wine has the perfect depth and complexity to accompany the mackerel.

RRP: £45.00 from Great Western Wine

RRP USA: $89.99 from Wine.com

Why these wines?

I recently discovered an affordable and youthful white wine from New Zealand; Black Cottage Sauvignon Blanc 2016, which is perfect to accompany the rich taste of the rillettes. It’s crisp, fresh, with strong gooseberry notes that delivers just the right amount of acidity.

Oily fish such as mackerel calls for a robust drink with real depth. Hamilton Russel’s 2015 Chardonnay from South Africa is aged and fermented in barrels; which adds length and intensity to this refreshing white wine.

To deliver a truly memorable aperitif, I suggest you go all out with a Taittinger 2008. This famous family-run Champagne house produces elegant and complex bubbles. This particular blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir is worth every penny.

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Michel Roux Jr
Michel Roux Jr
Columnist
Michel Roux Jr was born in 1960 in Pembury, Kent, where his father Albert Roux worked as a private chef for the Cazalet family. His earliest food memories are the smells of the Fairlawne kitchen – pastry, sugar caramelizing and stews – where he played under the table while his father and mother Monique prepared the meals. After deciding to follow in his father’s footsteps, he left school at 16 for the first of several challenging apprenticeships at Maître Patissier, Hellegouarche in Paris from 1976 to 1979. He was then Commis de Cuisine at Alain Chapel’s signature restaurant at Mionay near Lyon, Michel’s biggest influence. His military service was spent in the kitchens at the Elysée Palace at the time of Presidents Giscard d’Estaing and François Mitterrand. He also spent time at Boucherie Lamartine and Charcuterie Mothu in Paris, and the Gavers Restaurant in London. After a stint at the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong he returned to London and worked at La Tante Claire before joining the family business. He took over running Le Gavroche in 1991, gradually changing the style of cooking to his own – classic French with a lighter, modern twist. Michel opened Roux at Parliament Square in May 2010 with Restaurant Associates, part of the Compass Group UK and Ireland. And in November 2010, he opened Roux at The Landau at London’s prestigious luxury hotel, The Langham. Michel was a judge and presenter on the BBC’s popular prime time show, MasterChef: The Professionals, and presented all series of ‘Great British Food Revival.’  Michel fronted BBC2’s ‘Food and Drink,’ in 2014 and presented a documentary on Escoffier, whose revolutionary approach to fine cuisine has inspired Michel and many others. In the same year, Michel went on a journey to create the perfect chocolate for the Le Gavroche Kitchen.  Filmed by the BBC, in Paris he discovered chocolatiers, Cacao Barry and their Or Noir Lab. In 2013, Michel launched his most recent cookbook, ‘The French Kitchen’.  Focusing on traditional French home cooking, this is the fifth solo cookery book from Michel. He is involved with the Roux Experience courses at the ‘Cactus Kitchens’ cookery school, with the Executive producer of Saturday Kitchen, Amanda Ross. Cactus Kitchens offers people the opportunity to learn to cook within small intimate groups from some of the UK’s finest chefs, on site above the Saturday Kitchen studios. Michel has fronted a brand new four-part Channel 4 series, ‘The Diner’, exploring the hurdles faced by people with disabilities and mental health issues when finding employment. Michel also recently presented a new program on his first ever project with the Disney Channel.  ‘First Class Chefs’ which launched in June 2015, is a show where kids aged 9-11 compete to showcase their restaurant skills.