Smoked Mackerel Pate

Well last week was a pretty exciting week for a soggy January. My long anticipated Christmas present from the houseboy arrived & my Kenwood Chef Premier is now officially my most prized possession. You know you really love something when you kept checking to see if it’s still there (it always is-it’s too heavy to spout legs & take a wander & the poor houseboy has been warned about leaving finger prints) I am going to have to watch i don’t get too obsessed with buying attachments though. I can think of at least eight situations that a pasta roller, ice cream churner, meat grinder & sausage maker would save my life, but as you can’t swing a cat in our wee kitchen & the fact i got overexcited in John Lewis agin (damn those bright shiny sale signs) means additional accessories will have to wait. Will just get the mini grinder for now. And the pasta roller. And…maybe the sausage maker. The houseboy will come round to the last one, once he tries homemade sausages. I think.

The week also heralded my first ‘guest blog’ for fellow blogger Justin Orde who is part of Gill Orde Catering. Based in Bonny Scotland they are a family run team dedicated to outside catering and an events company from the heart of the Scottish Borders. They provide bespoke catering for all occasions, from intimate dinners to international product launches. Click here to have a read & find out more about what they do.

Right to business people. This weeks recipe is one of my favourites-perfect to use for canapés, starters, picnics, or in emergency breakfast situations. There have been a lot of breakfast emergencies since this arrived in our fridge.

Ingredients:
• 4 smoked mackerel fillets
• 225g cream cheese (like philadelphia)
• 4tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 clove crushed garlic
• 1tbps chopped parsley
• crushed black pepper

Peel the skin off each mackerel fillet & carefully de-bone, this can take time, buts its best done properly as no one likes a fishbone mid mouthful. Roughly flake the fish and mix with remaining ingredients. You can mix this using a food processor-but always use the pulse setting, you want all the ingredients incorporated well but not mixed into a smooth paste, you want some texture to it.

This goes really well with melba toast, rough oatcakes or as the image shows-blinis. More about blinis in a couple of weeks.