Always welcome as an aperitif or on the picnic tablecloth, rillettes are a nice way to cook our favorite fish, fresh! At Mont St Michel, we are particularly fond of homemade mackerel rillettes, especially in summer when this small fatty fish is abundant on our coasts. For this recipe, we suggest you add a touch of acidity to the rillettes, by marrying them with candied lemon; nothing like it to awaken the taste buds and whet the appetite!
Ingredients
2 whole mackerel (or 4 fillets prepared by your fishmonger)
4 tablespoons whipped cream cheese
1 or 1/2 candied lemons
1 shallot
A few sprigs of thyme
A few sprigs of chives
Water
Pepper
Coarse salt
Flower of salt
Espelette pepper
Preparation
1. Gut the mackerel or use directly the fillets prepared by the fishmonger.
2. Place them in a high-sided frying pan with a few sprigs of thyme, half a finely chopped shallot, pepper and coarse salt. Cover the whole with cold water, up to the level of the mackerel fillets. Heat until boiling, remove pan from heat and cover for about 10 minutes. Remove the fillets from the pan and let them cool. Reserve the broth in the pan.
3. Once the fillets have cooled, crumble them, making sure to remove the bones, if any remain.
4. Finely chop the remaining half shallot. Do the same with the preserved lemon and chives. Put everything in a salad bowl and add the crumbled mackerel, the fresh cheese, 2 tablespoons of the mackerel cooking stock, a few turns of ground pepper, a pinch of fleur de sel and Espelette pepper. Mix until you obtain homogeneous and creamy rillettes.
Enjoy your meal!