Horse mackerel, cucumber water, capers

To prepare his chichards, chef Matan Zaken of Parisian restaurant Nhome first pickles them before marinating them in a blend of olive and grapeseed oils and yuzu and lime juice.

This recipe by Matan Zaken, chef at Nhome restaurant in Paris, is from the 2024 edition ofBook 109: The new blood of French gastronomy. Discover the ingredients and preparation steps to make it a breeze.

Serves 8
Preparation time: 20 min
Cooking time: 5 min
Resting time: 4 h

Ingredients forhorse mackerel and cucumber water

3 medium-sized horsemackerel

For the dry brine

500 g fine salt
250 g brown sugar
Zest of 2 lemons

For the yuzu marinade

olive oil
Grape seed oil
Yuzu juice
Zest and juice of 1 lime

For the cucumber water

1 cucumber
Dashi broth
Rice vinegar

For the horseradish cream

40 cl raw cream
5 g freshly grated horseradish
Zest of 1 lime
salt and pepper

For the dressing

1 Meyer lemon (a cross between a yellow lemon and a mandarin or orange)
1 caviar lemon
Cucumber flowers
A few bronze fennel sprigs
Caper leaves

Steps for thehorse mackerel and cucumber water

Prepare the horse mackerel: remove the fillets, keeping the skin on. Remove the bones (or ask your fishmonger).
Prepare the dry brine by mixing salt, sugar and lemon zest. Brine the horse mackerel fillets for 4 hours, gravlax-style. Rinse fillets in clean water, then dry on absorbent paper.
Mix all ingredients to make the yuzu marinade. Cut each fillet into 4 portions. Brush the horse mackerel with the yuzu marinade, then flashlight the skin to char.
Prepare the cucumber water: wash the cucumber. Cut into cubes, keeping the skin and removing the seeds. Centrifuge, adding a pinch of ascorbic acid to preserve the color. Recover the water and strain through a sieve to extract translucent water, then add a pinch of salt, dashi broth and rice vinegar.
Make the horseradish cream: mix the raw cream with the grated horseradish, lime zest, salt and pepper.
To serve: place 3 pieces of horse mackerel in a soup plate. Add a cucumber flower, a Meyer lemon wedge, a caviar lemon wedge, bronze fennel and a caper leaf to each piece of horse mackerel. Finally, pour over the cucumber water before serving.