Swampdog Fish and Chips in South Brisbane is a new favourite cheap and cheerful dining spot. It’s fresh, it’s sustainable and not your average greasy fish joint. It’s eclectic decor of tables made out of old doors, handles still attached, old crates for seats and wooden cutlery, Swampdog is a funky, inner city, BYO fish and chippery offering a lot more than a seafood stick side. The menu is diverse and delicious with everything from tempura battered fish, popcorn prawns and their own creation of whiting with ginger prawn mousse tempura’ed to crunchy perfection to tender grilled octopus, and when I say tender, I MEAN TENDER! I just have to find out what they do to it!

A favourite for lunchtime is the wraps, their spicy mackerel wrap is so yummy, and as I do, I have recreated this at home. And because variety is the spice of life, I just had to have options, so this is mackerel two ways with the Swampdog spicy mackerel wrap and a fresh grilled SoCal version taken from Jaime Oliver’s, Jamie’s America.

Serve 4

Grilled Mackerel Wrap
4 mini tortillas
4 small pieces of mackerel
1 avocado
1 lime
1 cup red cabbage
1 cucumber
4 small radishes
1/2 small red onion
Handful of coriander
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbs Tabasco
Salt and pepper

Panko Mackerel Wrap
4 mini tortillas
4 small pieces of mackerel
1 cup panko crumbs
1/2 cup flour
1 egg
1/2 cup aioli
Salad mix

Tomato Relish
1 red onion, finely diced
1 garlic glove finely chopped
6 tomatoes, diced
1/2 small red chilli
75ml malt vinegar
140g brown sugar
Salt

First you will need to make the relish. To do this saute onions and garlic on medium heat until transparent then combine all remaining ingredients into a saucepan and cook down until jammy. Here you will need to adjust the flavours to your taste, you can use more or less chilli and depending on your tomatoes you may need more or less sugar or vinegar. Once the relish is ready, set aside to cool.

Then you can start prepping your mackerel. For the grilled wrap, leave the skin on, rub with oil and season with salt and pepper. For the panko fillets, remove skin and then combine flour with a little salt, and place in a plastic bag, whisk the egg in a shallow bowl and place the panko crumbs on a plate. Then put your mackerel in the bag of flour and shake around, shake off any excess and then dip in your egg, then place in your crumbs and roll around until completely coated. Set these aside in the fridge for the coating to set.

Next prep your vege for both wraps. For the SoCal wrap, peel the cucumber into ribbons and then slice lengthways into quarters. Julienne radishes and finely slice the cabbage and onion, then roughly mash the avocado with a fork and season with some lime juice and salt. For the panko wrap pick some nice lettuce leaves. Then combine sour cream and Tabasco in a small bowl. I like to put all this onto a platter along with the aioli and relish so that everyone can make their own at the table.

Once the vege is prepped and sauces are ready, you can cook the fish. To cook the panko fillets shallow fry over medium/high in about two centimetres of oil for a couple of minutes each side until golden brown. For the grill mackerel, cook of a searing hot fry pan of BBQ hot plate for a couple on minutes each side until cooked through and the skin is crispy.

Now you are ready to heat the tortillas for a few seconds in the microwave, place everything on the table and dig in.