Another mackerel

The second mackerel of the weekend and I wanted to do something else. Yesterday I'd gutted it and taken the head off (apparently this, particularly the gutting, slows down any decay). At first I thought of taking off the fillets and simply frying or grilling them, but decided to go for something more cheffy. So I boned the fish, something I'd never done before. Stop sniggering. It means cutting around the backbone, so that the two flanks remain joined. What you then have is a flat, whole fish. It makes it easier to do what I then did, which is to spread the following over the inside of the fish, and then roll it and tie it fairly tightly with string.

salt & pepper
1 diced shallot
a few capers
a few herbs (sage, tarragon, some frozen coriander)
a sprinkle of lime juice (I'm sure lemon would be ok, but I had half a lime to hand)

Season the outside with S&P, sprinkle some evoo and put the package in a 180C oven for 20 minutes.

It's faff, but it's worth it. The tightness of the package merges the stuffing with the fish, making for very tasty and quite substantial eating.