Big Green Egg | 50th Recipes | Gill Meller | Smoked Mackerel

I love cooking beetroots dirty in the embers – they char on the outside to the point where you’re a little alarmed at how they look, but under that blackened crust is the most intensely sweet, beautifully vibrant red flesh. Make sure the beetroots are golf ball sized, and no bigger.

The fish is salted before being smoked over hardwood – If you have access to sea water, you can use it to brine the fillets for about an hour, instead of dry salting. The third very important ingredient is horseradish. Bring all three together and it’s a work of art.

As part of Big Green Egg’s 50th birthday celebrations, we’re sharing 50 brand-new recipes from an amazing cast of cooks. Next up is chef, food writer and River Cottage mainstay Gill Meller. Gill, who lives near the Dorset coast, is passionate about outdoor cooking, which, he says, “gives us the opportunity to switch off and reconnect with a simpler way of life”. He also loves foraging for wild food: “The more we can focus in on the natural world the better, and if you get to take home a few delicious things to eat as a result of it, happy days.”