Nigel Slater’s recipes for grilled mackerel with lemon, and baked polenta with spinach

Fresh vibrant flavours to welcome the spring into your kitchen

The words, chalked in upper case on a grey board, greet me from afar: CARLINGFORD OYSTERS. CORNISH MACKEREL. For once, my mind is made up even before I set foot in the shop. I glance at some tempting sea bass and a bag of tiny mussels, shells closed tight, but I go with the recommendation. You learn to trust your local shopkeepers.

I do almost nothing with the oysters save a tiny squeeze of lemon. They have a briny, slap-you-in-the-face freshness and set us up for a fish supper of grilled mackerel with cider vinegar and paprika, and a plume of grilled spring onions. I sometimes struggle to get mackerel off the bars of the griddle, so decide to cook it with heat from above, under the oven grill. The fillets are turned halfway through, to crisp the skin, something I relish, even if others don’t.