Smoked Mackerel Pâté
Smoked mackerel beaten with cottage cheese, lemon and horseradish into a coarse pâté — twelve minutes, no cooking.
Photograph credit: Smoked Mackerel Pate with Red Onions Gerkins and Parsley by Girl Interrupted Eating · CC BY 2.0 · Flickr
Build the Meal Around Smoked Mackerel Pâté
- Rye toast, for anyone not counting carbohydrate
- A cold pale ale
- Pickled cucumber
Making Smoked Mackerel Pâté, Step by Step
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Blend the cottage cheese alone for 30 seconds until completely smooth. Left in curds it makes the pâté grainy.
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Beat in the cream cheese, lemon zest and juice, horseradish, pepper and cayenne by hand.
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Flake the mackerel into the bowl in pieces roughly the size of a thumbnail.
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Fold with a fork, pressing about a third of the fish against the side of the bowl to break it down and leaving the rest in flakes.
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Stir in the dill and spring onions.
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Taste for lemon and heat. Smoked mackerel varies a great deal in saltiness, so season last and probably not with salt.
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Chill 30 minutes to firm up, and serve with the chicory leaves and cucumber for scooping.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Notes From the Method
Check for pin bones with your fingers as you flake. There are always a few and they are unpleasant to find later.
Do not blend the fish. A smooth pâté tastes of nothing but smoke; the flakes are where the flavour is.
Peppered mackerel works well and means you can skip the cayenne.
Ingredient Swaps
- Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
Leftovers
Refrigerate up to 3 days with the surface pressed flat and covered. It firms considerably when cold; take it out 15 minutes before serving. Does not freeze — the cottage cheese splits.
Smoked Mackerel Pâté: Your Questions Answered
How long does Smoked Mackerel Pâté take to make?
12 minutes of preparation and of cooking, plus 30 minutes of chilling, so allow 42 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 2.
The Numbers per Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (most of the energy comes from foods with no recorded source). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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