mackerel with chorizo

Today really does represent one of those tangents I have been threatening to go off on. I have been meaning to cook some fish and/or seafood for a while. This has now combined with a suspicion that I really should manage my cholesterol levels a little bit more diligently: I have eaten far too much cheese recently.
So I bought some mackerel fillets and some shell-on king prawns. I normally go to a fish shop on the dockside in Fleetwood, but the continuing improvement of the fish counter at Morrisons means that I can usually get all my shopping for the week in the supermarket.
I asked the chap on the fish counter to fillet 3 small mackerel. Once filleted there really was not much weight of fish, so I didn't feel too guilty. For some reason I thought the mackerel might go quite well with some links of the chorizo usually used for cooking that had been hanging around in the bottom of the fridge for a while.
so I sliced the chorizo in half lengthways and put them into a dry frying pan on a low heat. Chorizo doesn't normally need any extra oil for frying as the melting fat it exudes quickly produces a frying medium. Once I had gently fried the chorizo on both sides, I removed it from the pan and set it to one side. My hope was that the paprika infused oil left behind by the chorizo would add both flavour and colour to the mackerel. I fried the mackerel - skin side down first, in true Masterchef style - and then flipped them over. They were done in about 3 minutes: I told you they were small fillets! 
I served them with the chorizo, which by that time had cooled quite a bit. I have a much more Mediterranean attitude to the right temperature at which to serve food: this slightly British thing where everything has to be served "piping hot" is sheer folly. If the food is too hot to eat when it is served up, surely it was served too hot in the first place. (If you want to read a funny anecdote on the subject, I recommend "Greece on my wheels" by Edward Enfield - one of the best travel books I have ever read.)
To go with the mackerel and chorizo I knocked up a quick salad of chopped tomatoes, some of those jarred peppadew peppers, a bit of onion, some sliced pitted black olives, a bit of olive oil and a bit of balsamic vineagar.
As a starter I cooked the prawns with chilli and garlic. I decided to shell the prawns, but that was only because, once cooked, I wanted to enjoy them immediately. With regard to the garlic, I sliced it as finely as possible and then gently poached it in some olive oil along with the chilli flakes that are such a common accompaniment to large prawns. I think that slowly poaching the olive oil along with the chilli makes sure that the oil is well infused with both those flavours. Once I have done that for 5 minutes or so, I put the prawns in the pan, turn up the heat a notch or two, and in 3 or 4 minutes the prawns are done. Prawns are, I believe, high in dietary cholesterol. However it is the way that saturated fats (ie, those that are solid at room temperature) react during digestion, that creates the elevated levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream. The dietary cholesterol present in prawns breaks down into something else during digestion, so within reason, prawns are OK. (Disclaimer: please check this advice with your physician or health care provider - failing that write to Dr Ozzy Osbourne at the Sunday Times, whose advice is always both timely and appropriate.)
I know that self praise is no recommendation, but I thought the chorizo went really well with the mackerel.
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