Preparation

• 1
  1. Place the beetroot into a large saucepan full of boiling water and simmer for about an hour and a half, or until cooked through. Cook the beetroot with the root, skin and a little of the stalk still attached, or else much of the juice will bleed out into the water.
• 2
  2. Put the scrubbed small new potatoes into another pan of salted water, bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until tender. If you are using larger potatoes, cut them in half first. Once cooked, drain them well and leave to cool.
• 3
  3. Spoon the creamed horseradish and the mayonnaise into a bowl and mix together. Then whisk in the olive oil and lemon juice until everything is well combined. Add black pepper to taste
• 4
  you are unlikely to need salt as the mackerel already tastes quite salty.
• 5
  4. Take off the skin from the smoked mackerel, and be careful to remove all of the bones
• 6
  they can be easily missed. Flake the fish into fairly large pieces.
• 7
  5. Cut the potatoes into chunky pieces and place into the serving bowl, or divide into individual bowls if you prefer. Gently stir in the sauce until the potatoes are coated. Chop the spring onions and dice the cucumber, [I used about a quarter of a cucumber], and combine them with the potato mixture. Then add the smoked mackerel, mixing carefully so that the fish pieces don’t break up too much.
• 8
  6. Remove the root, stalk and skin from the cooled beetroot
• 9
  the skin should slide off quite easily. Dice the beetroot and put into a bowl with a splash of olive oil and vinegar, season and stir together. Sprinkle onto the top of the mackerel and potato salad.
• 10
  7. Finally, wash and chop the chives and use to garnish the salad.