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Susan Jung

Text Susan Jung / Photography Jonathan Wong / Styling Nellie Ming Lee
 
I love rich, oily fish such as mackerel, sardines and anchovies. I've never seen fresh anchovies anywhere other than in Vietnam (where they're used to make fish sauce) but mackerel are easy to find in Hong Kong and sardines are available intermittently.
Mackerel with cucumber spaghetti (pictured)
Butterflying the fish so the flesh is intact, minus the bones and heads is harder to describe than it is to do.
For this dish, buy the slender Japanese cucumbers that are dense, with thin skin and not too many seeds.
For the grilled mackerel:
12 fresh mackerel, about 15cm long (including the head), scaled and gutted
Fine sea salt
Oil, for brushing
For the cucumber spaghetti:
3 to 4 Japanese cucumbers
30ml fish sauce
10ml fresh lime juice, or to taste
5 grams granulated sugar, or to taste
1 red bird's-eye chilli, cut into thin rounds
Fresh coriander sprigs and lime halves, for serving
Make the cucumber spaghetti. Rinse the cucumbers then cut them (skin, seeds and flesh) into long, thin strands that resemble spaghetti. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of salt over the cucumbers and mix well, then leave them in a colander to drain for about 15 minutes. Rinse the strands with cool, running water, squeezing and massaging to remove excess salt. Try a few of the strands, they shouldn't taste salty. Put them in a clean dish towel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible, then put them in a bowl and mix in the fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and chilli. Taste for seasoning and adjust, if needed.
Lay the mackerel on a cutting board. Lift the gill then remove the head by cutting just behind it. Remove the dorsal fin by making a shallow slit into the fish along either side of the fin; pull it (and the attached bones) from the fish. Place the fish with the stomach cavity facing you and look inside so you can see the ribs and backbone. Use a very sharp knife to slice the flesh along one side of the ribs, angling your knife slightly so it cuts towards the bones, rather than towards the skin, and don't cut through the backbone. When you've cut the ribs on one side of the entire length of the fish (stopping at the tail), turn the fish over and cut along the ribs on the other side. The ribs will be connected at the backbone. Open the fish so the flesh lies flat on the cutting board and the ribs are sticking up. Carefully slice between the flesh and the backbone. Use kitchen shears to snip off the backbone where it's attached to the tail. Remove the backbone (and ribs) from the flesh. Make sure you've removed the fine bones that run along the stomach and backbone of the fish. Gently run your fingers over the exposed flesh to find any remaining bones and pull them out. Rinse the fish then pat it dry with paper towels. Lightly salt the fish, sprinkling it over the flesh and skin. Gently press the salt into the fish then leave at room temperature for 10 minutes.
Heat a well-seasoned grill pan and brush it with oil. Brush the fish skin with oil then lay it skin-side down in the very hot pan. Carefully press on the fish so it comes in contact with the pan. Sear the fish then brush oil on the top before turning it over to cook the other side. Because the fish is thin, it will take only five minutes (or less) in total to cook. Put three fish on each plate and add some of the cucumber spaghetti. Garnish with fresh coriander and lime before serving.
Sardines on Poilane toast
This dish makes an excellent appetiser and was created by my former food stylist, Vivian Herijanto, who runs the Corner Kitchen cooking school in Sheung Wan.
Poilane bread is a delicious (but expensive) bread imported from France and sold at places such as Great and Oliver's. You can substitute another high-quality sourdough bread, if you prefer.
1 large red bell pepper
15ml balsamic vinegar
About 150ml olive oil, divided
8 sardines
60 grams kalamata olives
4-5 slices Poilane bread
60 grams rocket
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Fine sea salt, rough-flaked sea salt (such as fleur de sel or Maldon) and freshly ground black pepper
Roast the red bell pepper by putting it directly over the flames of a gas burner turned to high. Turn it over as the skin blackens and blisters. When it's thoroughly and evenly charred, put it in a colander in the sink. When it's cool enough to handle, strip off the skin. Remove the stem, core and seeds, then rinse the bell pepper under cold, running water. Dry it with paper towels then cut it into 5mm dice. Mix the bell pepper with the balsamic vinegar, 30ml of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Marinate for about an hour. Remove and discard the olive pits, then roughly chop the olives. Mix the olives and 60ml of olive oil with the marinated bell pepper and season with salt (if needed) and pepper.
Remove the heads, guts and bones from the sardines, then cut each one into two fillets.
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Brush olive oil generously over both sides of the bread and lay the slices on a tray. Sprinkle the bread with salt and pepper and bake until it's toasted and slightly charred at the edges. Turn off the oven but keep the toast inside so it stays warm.
Brush the sardine fillets with olive oil on both sides and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Place a grill pan over a medium-high flame and, when it's very hot, grill the sardines until they're cooked but still moist inside, turning them over once.
Cut the toast into pieces of a size that will comfortably hold a sardine fillet. Top each piece with a spoonful of the bell pepper-and-olive mixture, then add some rocket leaves and a sardine fillet. Sprinkle with rough-flaked sea salt and squeeze lemon juice over each piece before serving.
 


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Susan Jung's recipes

Seafood recipes: mackerel with cucumber spaghetti, and sardines on toast 

Mackerel with cucumber spaghetti

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For a perfect, flavour-packed summer appetiser, what better than a rich, oily fish dish?


Seafood recipes: mackerel with cucumber spaghetti, and sardines on toast

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}For a perfect, flavour-packed summer appetiser, what better than a rich, oily fish dish?

For a perfect, flavour-packed summer appetiser, what better than a rich, oily fish dish?