This time last year I only two weeks to wait from the beginning of July until we were off to Ahakista. Sitting here now we are not going until the middle of August so I still have a full six weeks to wait.

By way of whetting the appetite I have been sent a few ripped pages from The Financial Times  Weekend Magazine which someone thought would have a a couple of recipes I might think worthwhile. It does!

My eye was caught by a recipe for  Mackerel Tartare. It comes from the Polpo Cookbook, which I have and have enjoyed cooking from, but for whatever I reason I had not noticed this before.

So long as I make sure I bring the right ingredients with me it should be a doddle to make and I am never going to have fresher mackerel to make it with. The list of things to make sure I have will only need include a small jar of capers and a similar sized jar of gherkins.

I will need to catch two good sized mackerel, fillet them and skin them. Filleting them won’t be a problem but I have never skinned a mackerel fillet before. The knives should be sharp enough to be up for the job but I may need to make sure I catch a few extra fish in case I make mess of it at first.

The making of it involves dicing the mackerel, marinading half a skinned and seeded cucumber in sugar and salt for an hour, chopping a handful of gherkins and capers and then mixing all together with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice. There will need to be lots of tasting for seasoning.

We will eat it with good bread from Bantry Market with a beetroot and horseradish pickle.

Lips are being licked.