Smoked Mackerel Paté

Mackerel is loaded with goodness - protein, omega 3, selenium, vitamins… and it is also one of the most sustainable fishes you can eat (North Atlantic is the best), makes you really brainy and it is a very reasonable in price.  

It has a strong flavour whether smoked or not, and can be a bit of a fishy marmite moment for some.  I am not mad keen on it fresh, partly because the cooking smells tend to linger for aeons after the fact, and am thought to be beyond help by my family who would eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I’d let them. I do however really love it smoked, and in particular as a paté.  You can buy it plain smoked, hot smoked with pepper or other spices.  For this recipe I used hot smoked.

It was big favourite back in the Folk House Café days, hugely popular as a lunch dish with salad and our famous homemade bread.  The café will be re-opening as soon as rules allow so please visit and demand that Rob (head chef) keeps this on the menu!

Ingredients

• 210g (a little more or less either is fine) smoked mackerel

• 2 large tsp creme fraiche

• 1 - 2 tsp horseradish cream - optional

• ½ red onion, finely chopped

• 1 small fresh red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped

• 2 heaped tsp capers (baby ones, or chop finely if large ones)

• ½ lemon, zest and juice of

• Fresh ground black pepper

Method

1. Remove the skin of the mackerel fillets and discard.

2. Shred the the meat with a fork into a bowl.

3. Add all the other ingredients except the zest and mix well.

4. Put the mix into a pretty bowl, add the zest on top as a tasty decoration, a little more juice if you like

   1. and serve with crackers.

   Tips and swaps

   • I didn’t have any fresh herbs when I made this batch but it was delicious anyway. Parsley, coriander or dill all make lovely additions to this (not all together).

   • If you don’t have a fresh chilli a dash of tabasco would do, and in fact if you like it spicy add a dash anyway.

   • If you want to make more of a dip than a paté double the amount of creme fraiche and add more lemon juice to loosen it up and make it dippable.

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Written by Liz Haughton

Bristol resident for twenty five years, Liz ran the Folk House Cafe in Bristol for 13 and half years, adding Spike Island Cafe in along the way, until August 2019. Liz is currently organising a series of Slow Creative Retreats (www.slowretreats.co.uk) and encouraging nursery school kids to play with their food. Liz is a cook, writer, painter and general dabbler in all things creative.

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