This works with any oily fish like sardines, mackerel or even trout. The dressing is made simply by blending all the ingredients in a food processor and then after a short marinade, grilling the fish on a hot barbecue, under a hot grill should have much the same effect. I serve it with my fast Thai salad.

This is the low carb version which is great for my 5:2 days, you could happily add a portion of cooked and cooled vermicelli rice noodles to the salad to bulk it up.

Ingredients

Two mackerel whole fish. Get your fishmonger to clean the insides, or do it yourself.

FOR THE DRESSING AND MARINADE

1 lime

1 thumb sized piece of peeled ginger

2 cloves of garlic

4 tablespoons of dark soy sauce

4 tablespoons of fish sauce

2 red chilli (I used the larger less intense variety but adjust this to your taste)

2 teaspoon of sugar

4 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil

Large handful of fresh coriander (including stems)

1 tablespoon of sunflower oil

FOR THE SALAD

1 courgette, top and tailed and washed.

1 peeled carrot, top and tailed

1/4 of a white cabbage washed

another handful of fresh coriander, chopped

3 spring onions finely chopped

50g of roasted, unsalted cashew nuts, roughly chopped.

Method

I use my Gas Weber barbecue and pre heat it for 10mins to get the grill really hot. I get the temp up to about 250c.

Put everything in the food processor (I used the small bowl and blade on my Magimix) and blitz it until chopped but it doesn’t have to be a paste as such. Remove half the dressing a this stage for the fish. Leave the remainder in the processor and continue to blitz it until it is as liquid as you can get it.

Wash your gutted fish and with a sharp knife, cut 4 or 5 diagonal slashes in the side of the fish turn it over and repeat on the other side. Rub the marinade into the fish making sure to get it into the cuts you have made. Allow it to marinade for a few minutes while the grill heats up.

Place the fish directly on the grill and close the lid – give it 2-3 minutes then turn with a fish slice and cook the other side for a couple of minutes. I always find that the skin chars and tears a little and that’s fine- it adds to the flavour and charm of the fish.

While the fish is grilling, switch the blade in the food processor from the chopping blade to the grating attachment. (In the magimix, I also switched to the bigger bowl and decanted the remainder of the dressing into the big blow. Over the dressing, feed the carrot, courgette and cabbage in to the shredder.

Tip the shredded veg and dressing into large bowl and add the chopped coriander and spring onion. mix well. Serve a fish with a portion of salad and some chopped cashew nut sprinkled over the salad