Balık Ekmek

The mackerel is grilled on the bone and boned at the last moment, so it never dries out.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 4 whole mackerel, gutted and butterflied
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 4 long bread rolls or lengths of baguette
• 1 onion, sliced very thinly
• 2 tablespoons sumac
• a large handful of rocket or lettuce
• a handful of parsley
• 2 lemons
• black pepper

Method

1. THE MACKEREL IS GRILLED ON THE BONE AND BONED AT THE LAST MOMENT. Butterflied -- opened flat along the belly with the backbone still in -- and grilled skin-side first, then flipped for a minute. The bone conducts heat evenly and, more importantly, holds the flesh together and holds its moisture in; mackerel is a fatty fish that dries startlingly fast off the bone. The backbone is then lifted out in one piece, by hand, at the moment the sandwich is being built. Filleted first and grilled, the fish is dry and falls apart before it reaches the bread.
2. THE SKIN SIDE GOES DOWN FIRST AND GETS MOST OF THE TIME. Four or five minutes skin-down on a hot grill, then one minute on the flesh. The skin crisps and blackens in patches and protects the flesh above it. Flesh-side first, it sticks and tears when turned.
3. THE BONE COMES OUT BY PULLING FROM THE TAIL END. Laid flesh-up, the tail end of the backbone lifted and drawn towards the head, and the ribs come with it in one go. Picking at it with a fork breaks the fish into pieces.
4. THE ONION IS SLICED PAPER-THIN AND TOSSED WITH SUMAC. Two tablespoons of sumac rubbed through the sliced onion with a little salt until it goes limp and purple. That is the only dressing in the sandwich -- there is no sauce, no mayonnaise -- and the sumac onion is doing all the work of cutting the oily fish.
5. THE BREAD IS NOT TOASTED OR BUTTERED. A soft roll, split, used as it is. It is meant to absorb the fish's oil and the lemon juice, which a toasted or buttered surface resists. The sandwich is eaten within a minute or two, so sogginess is not a risk.
6. THE LEMON IS SQUEEZED ONTO THE FISH IN THE BREAD. Hard, and generously, at the last second. On the fish, not on the salad, so the juice goes into the flesh and down into the crumb.
7. The mackerel butterflied, rubbed with the oil and COARSE SALT.
8. A grill or griddle heated until very hot.
9. Grilled SKIN-SIDE DOWN 4 to 5 MINUTES, until the skin is crisp and blackened in patches.
10. Turned and given 1 MINUTE only on the flesh.
11. The onion sliced PAPER-THIN and rubbed with the sumac and a little salt until limp and purple.
12. The rolls split -- NOT toasted, NOT buttered.
13. Rocket and parsley laid in each.
14. EACH FISH BONED NOW: laid flesh-up, the tail end of the backbone lifted and DRAWN TOWARDS THE HEAD so the ribs come with it.
15. The boned fish laid straight into the bread.
16. The sumac onion piled on, black pepper over, and the lemon squeezed HARD onto the fish.
17. TESTED: the fish should be moist and in one piece, the skin crisp. Dry or broken means it was filleted before grilling.
18. Eaten at once, in the hand.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes