Simple Smoked Mackerel Pate

Smoked mackerel is something we like to eat and is a good source of lots of vitamins and healthy oils.  As Sous Chef J is a big fan of dips, we thought we'd try to make a dip-like pate for a speedy lunch.
 
We started by gathering the ingredients we were going to use, which were:

• 1 pack/(about) 280g smoked mackerel fillets (we used plain but peppered could also be used)
• 200g cream cheese
• 1 Tbsp of creme fraiche
• juice of half a lemon
We also added (but these can be left out if you prefer):
• 1/2 tsp jarred horseradish (you can add more, to taste)
• black peppercorns (lightly crushed) if not using peppered fillets

We began by removing the skin from the mackerel fillets. Usually the skin peels straight off

but, if you need to, you can scrape any remaining skin off with a sharp knife or back of a spoon.
 
 

Next the fish was broken up and checked to make sure we removed any obvious bones.
 
 
 
Then we put the mackerel, cream cheese and creme fraiche (this is when you add any additional ingredients if you're using them) into our blender and whizzed until it was combined.  

 
At this point we added half of the lemon juice, whizzed again, checked the flavour and added the rest as we like 'zingy' foods.
 
Once we were happy with the taste, and it was fully mixed, some was spooned into serving bowl.  The remainder was placed in jam jars in the fridge for another day - the mixture was a little runny but soon firmed up in the fridge. 
 

It's speedy to make and we ate some of ours immediately.  The rest was kept the fridge and eaten within 3 days.
 
We served ours with ready salted crisps, but it is also tasty with crusty toast or toasted pitta breads.

Speedy Mushroom Sauce

Things are not quite 'right' here at the moment. Sous Chef J is rather unwell (more on that in later posts, I should think) and, as a result our life is even more chaotic than usual.

Luckily, we were sent some samples of Boursin Cheese the other week and during a lunchtime fridge audit (those of you that follow me on twitter may recognise that term!) I spotted the Garlic and Herb Boursin loitering alongside a few mushrooms.  It wasn't a great leap of culinary genius that lead to my mind coming up with a plan to use them together but a moment of thinking "that'd go well together"... so I gathered the ingredients and set about trying an ad hoc concoction.

An onion was finely chopped and fried in a little oil over a low heat for a few minutes during which time the mushrooms were cleaned, de-stalked and chopped.   The 3 chestnut mushrooms (they were quite large) and a handful of button mushrooms were added to the frying onions and a knob of butter was added.  This was all then left over a low heat for about 10 minutes to sweat down.  A squeeze of lemon juice was added to the pan and mixed well.

The mushroom mix was then drained in a sieve to remove excess moisture.  It was then blitzed using our Braun stick blender.

Finally, a whole pack of "Boursin Ail & Fines Herbes" was added and quickly whizzed to combine.  The mix was then placed in a jar and stored in the fridge until teatime when we cooked some Dove's Farm Gluten Free Pasta, drained it, returned it to the cooking pan and mixed the mushroom sauce through. 

We thought it was delicious, although in his current, under the weather state, am sorry to report that Sous Chef J would "not even taste a molecule". 

However, we tried half of the summer flavour Sun Ripened Tomato, Onion and Chive Boursin stirred through the warm pasta and the young Chef's plate was cleared so fast, there was no time for a photo! 

To use up the remainder of the pack, we also added the cheese to a salad to accompany our steamed salmon the next night making another quick and tasty meal. 

Thanks to Kirsty for sending the samples.  They've provided us with the chance to make speedy, tasty food when we've really needed to be spending as little time as possible on daily chores.