Smoked Mackerel Pâté With Ginger

Well, after all of that, I wanted to do something with my mackerel that would be worthy of the effort involved in acquiring it. Of course, you really don’t want to do much, if anything, to good smoked mackerel before you get down to the business of eating it, so smoked mackerel pâté, where the fish is simply blended into a paste, fit the bill nicely. For this pâté, in addition to some sour cream, I’ve mixed the mackerel with ginger and spring onions, both of which complement it very well.

You’ll need:

200g smoked mackerel fillets, skin removed
4 tblsp sour cream
6 spring onions, white and green parts sliced (around 75g sliced spring onion)
2 tsp very finely grated root ginger
2 tsp rice vinegar
freshly ground black pepper
toasted rye or wholewheat bread or crackers to serve

You’ll also need:

A food processor to blend everything together

The Steps:

Flake the mackerel and remove any stray bones.
Add the mackerel, sour cream, spring onions, ginger, rice vinegar and a few twists of black pepper to the bowl of your food processor and blend until well combined. Taste and add more pepper, ginger and/or vinegar if to your taste.
Serve with toast or crackers and get spreading.

The Variations:

You can replace the sour cream with natural yoghurt for a version that is not quite as rich but still tasty.

The Results:

Would serve around 4 as a starter, with toast or crackers.