#PurpleMac

Some say fish is brain food. I think there's some truth in that and I often cook a fish dish for Sunday Lunch or Tea to help focus my mind prior to the tackling the intellectually challenging job I do during the week.

The middle Sunday of the month was one where I followed this approach. It had been another enjoyable weekend that featured the fourth game of my comeback to competitive cricket, having not previously played the game competitively since August 2013.

On the player was one of several new records I had acquired recently. My music is very important to me; in fact it is one of the things that makes me get up in the morning. I find that listening to a great album can make a tricky day better, turn a mediocre day into a good one and a good day into a corker of day.

I recalled buying a magazine produced by the Observer in 2004 that listed the 100 greatest British Albums. Reading it all those years ago had turned me onto the Smiths, Nick Drake and John Martyn. I decided to return to that list again to acquire a few albums by artists not already in my large collection. For those of you who are interested a link to the list is at: https://www.theguardian.com/observer/omm/idx/0,,1242360,00.html

The album I had acquired from this list was Soul II Soul's outstanding 1989 "Club Classics Vol 1". It is a distinctively British take on Soul and R 'n' B with hints of dub and shades of rap thrown in. The key track is the propulsive "Keep on movin" a number that is an excellent motivational piece.

So as to set myself up for the week I decided to make a light dish featuring pan-fried Mackerel and some light, fresh ingredients to dress it. I'm quite particular about what seafood I have in my diet as studies have confirmed that a lot of sea-going fish are riddled with plastic and therefore you as consumer are essentially eating this plastic, a habit that is clearly not healthy.

I chose the Mackerel as I knew it was sourced in this country under circumstances that meant it would have no exposure to plastic pollution. The ingredients to the recipe were:

2 Fillets of Mackerel.
2 fresh Beetroot, topped, tailed and then boiled in a pan of water for 90 minutes and left to cool in the fridge overnight.
0.1 litres of zero-fat Greek Yoghurt.
The juice of 1 Lemon.
1 teaspoon of dried Dill.
1 Fennel Bulb, topped, tailed and sliced very finely.
The fern-like fronds of the Fennel Bulb.
7 Slices of Cucumber.

I made the recipe by following the method below:

1. Make the dressing by slicing the Beetroot into quarters and add it to a serving bowl.
2. Add the Lemon Juice, Dill, pieces of Fennel Bulb, Cucumber Slices and stir these together thoroughly with the Beetroot pieces.
3. Add the Greek Yoghurt and stir this thoroughly into the mixture.
4. Cover the bowl and leave in the fridge while you prepare the Mackerel.
5. Fry the Mackerel in a frying pan covered with Olive Oil. Fry it on a medium heat for seven minutes on each side.
6. When the Mackerel is ready place it on the plate and top it with the dressing from the fridge and the fronts from the Fennel Bulb.

The taste of this recipe was just what I was looking for on a warm Sunday Evening in the middle of a heatwave. The Mackerel had a taste that made me think it had been prepared by being grilled over a campfire on the shores of a Scottish Loch, while the dressing combined the earthy flavours of the Beetroot with the aniseed flavour of the Fennel and the Yoghurt, Cucumber and Lemon added a welcome freshness to the meal.